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A jam submission

OMSK - DEAD FREQUENCIESView project page

Figments of the Past come back to life...
Submitted by SanctussyntH (@sanctussynth) — 8 days, 4 hours before the deadline
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OMSK - DEAD FREQUENCIES's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#213.7124.067
Quality#223.7734.133
Correlation to theme#323.5913.933
Overall#353.5183.853
Impression#483.2253.533
Composition#503.2863.600

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
This soundtrack is Ambient Horror. (Runtime about 15 minutes)

You've woken up after what seems like a deep slumber, only to realize that you are lost and alone. You take a walk and see that you're in a large Post-Soviet city, although there's something wrong...

It's barren...

You really are alone, aren't you?

You set up camp in a small apartment building near the western woods, but as the night creeps into the limelight, you start hearing things, no, voices from the radio. What are they saying, what could it mean?

(Fictional game idea for the soundtrack jam, with the theme of "Are we alone in the universe?". Although the first thing that comes to mind are aliens, I decided to hit a bit closer to home, with folk tales of one's spirituality and how it passes on after death, or, in the opposite sense, lingers.)

Track descriptions:



1. Something's Awry:

You are having a very pleasant dream, the sun is beautiful outside, life seems to be good today. This dream is very angelic, very comforting, yet something feels wrong about it, it feels the same all over... you look further into this dream of yours and realize it wasn't quite the heaven you expected it to be. Even hell would've been a better place to end up in compared to where you are now.



2. They Speak:

It's getting dark outside, after not having found anyone in the vicinity, you decide to do the next logical thing and camp out in a derelict apartment. Everything's awfully quiet, only thing keeping you sane are the birds that chirp, but even they have to sleep at one point, right? You hear the radio emit a faint signal despite there not being any electricity to feed it... Strange...

3. Attention, Attention:

All the radios... they're alive! They can speak! They order commands that fall on deaf ears! They call for assistance in an empty world! What is this? Where are you? You start panicking... they keep trying to contact you, but for what? The lights just turned on for a second, the wind is getting stronger... there's a knock on your door.



4. Sector 3:

The screams of the forlorn are manifesting themselves... these aren't hallucinations, these are REAL! And they're coming for you... you can either succumb to their force, or fight back! You decide today isn't the day you give up! You start boarding up the door, grab your nearest sharp object and pray for your survival...



5. Close:

Dark twisted metallic entities have been assaulting your apartment for what seems to be the whole night... yet you fought back, and fought back bravely. The night is shying away and the sun rises once more. The voices on the radios subside. The birds wake up again... everything seems safe, for now at least. A track very similar to the first one, highlighting the happy dream you once had, which brought you into this mess. This time, however, there's no sense of something being wrong, because all has already gone wrong. You're getting closer, my friend.



6. The End:

You've lived many nights to die another day, you're a seasoned survivor in this abandoned city. You've started to piece together the clues that the radios leave you, coordinates, destinations, supply drops... It keeps you going, you are almost in a state of pure ecstacy by trying to solve it all. The you that was before all of this is no more. You are a shell of a person. After many sleepless nights, you stumble onto a bunker which seems connected to a large antenna station masked by the woods. You are not alone here... There's something... no... someone... who hears you, and is speaking to you... Assuring you that there's a way out. Is it all lies? Should you trust this man over the radio? Should you walk into the light at the center of the room? A collective consciousness of many souls who call your name... It looks comfortable... feels comfortable... you've lived up until here, after all... why not join your brothers?


TECHNICALITIES:


Long droning sounds, an almost aggressive yet soothing bass, and the entity which speaks directly to you in the final track, all done to show the beauty of the horrible, the awe from the dreadful, the joy in the sadness.

I composed each track with many recordings of myself speaking in russian, military evacuation dialogues and such. Distortion is your best friend in a soundtrack like this.

I used Ableton Live Standard 11.

Message from the artist:
I consent to it being publicly shown.

Theme

Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
I didn't think of aliens, but I thought of the supernatural. I find that what happens beyond life is just as fascinating, if not more bizarre than the thought of aliens, and that their life force flows through the universe on loop. The image gave me the inspiration for the scene and setting, probably in central Russia due to the vast forests, fields and fauna. It sort of has a haunting charm to it.

Link to streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/sanctussynth/sets/omsk-dead-frequencies-soundtrack-jam

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Very nice ambient music, it really had this horror vibe, the Russian with the ambience reminded me of the metro games

(+1)

This music fits Ambient Horror for sure. Swell tunes me ole chum ! The hard to decern eerie voices was a good call.

Submitted(+1)

Very atmospheric and impactful!

Great work!

Submitted(+1)

I LOVE this! From the Russian speaking to the distortion, you're skilled in creating not just an atmosphere but an entire setting in your soundtrack. I'm not a huge fan of music with long drones, so I was hesitant going into it but you proved me dead wrong. Great work!

Submitted(+1)

Man, that's a really fun soundtrack. I love the warbled-garbled-mangled choir and strings, very unsettling. And my favourite has to be Close, that drone and your panned speech fits really well. 

Молодец!

Submitted(+1)

While listening I was thinking about a soundtrack I really like and you might like as well, very experimental and full of unsettling drones and strings like yours. The OST of Under The Skin, by Mica Lev, Recommended ;) Well done!

Submitted(+1)

I really liked the overall atmosphere. It felt very coherent with the descriptions you provided and quite immersive. The background voices are adding a lot to the sense of unknown/dread. Great job! 

Submitted(+1)

Wow, it's very tense ! The whole atmosphere brings me in really quickly.

Submitted(+1)

The tracks create a really good atmosphere, especially with the pulsing background layers/detuning troughout the soundtrack. This would probably also work well on a "scary/tense" game, utilizing some audio middleware to add more layers (percussion, or those string stabs from "They Speak") on top to increase the tension when needed. Great stuff!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed listening to this!