Geek Music – Osmos / High Skies / Mat Jarvis

Today I’ve decided to buy a copy of The Humble Indie Bundle 2. Partly because you can find good linux games. Partly because by spending those few dollars you can support valuable and noble causes. It’s up to you to decide on a price of a set. In bundle you will find Revenge Of The Titans, Osmos, Machnarium, Cortex Commander and famous XBOX and PC game Braid. Additionally you will get soundtracks for first three games.

As this post is about music I won’t be getting into details for all the games, but focus myself on a single one.

Osmos is a ambient physic game in which you are directing a sphere of something across different levels and tasks, trying to absorb and not to be absorbed by other orbs. On Hemisphere Games website you can find their own description of the gameplay.

Enter the ambient world of Osmos: elegant, physics-based gameplay, dreamlike visuals, and a minimalist, electronic soundtrack.

Your objective is to grow by absorbing other motes. Propel yourself by ejecting matter behind you. But be wise: ejecting matter also shrinks you. Relax… good things come to those who wait.

Progress from serenely ambient levels into varied and challenging worlds. Confront attractors, repulsors and intelligent motes with similar abilities and goals as you.

At first game looks fairly easy and straightforward, but after few beginning levels the difficultly is raising. Visuals and gameplay keeps high standards, not only for a linux game, but also for any other independent one.

The music which we listen during our adventures is pretty good piece of ambient from artists as Mat Jarvis (Gas/ High Skies), Loscil, Julien Neto, Biosphere, Vincent Gagnon and Tristan Bernier and DJ Paw. Frankly speaking, before I started to play Osmos, I only associated Biosphere, but the songs prepared by Hight Skies also fits my musical taste.

High Skies’ Sounds of Earth mini-album with songs  included in Osmos’ soundtrack, which you receives with The Humble Indie Bundle 2, is also remarkable. Maybe it’s is not much, only 6 songs and 22 minutes of ambient sounds, but I always appreciate something extra. Otherwise you would need to pay $5 to get a copy.

This is what can be found on Mat’s webpage, regarding music on High Skies – Sounds of Earth album.

Blade Runner meets Voyager; an interstellar soundtrack to NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. Six tracks of deep phased electronics.

The Shape of Things to Come, 6 minutes song,  is featured during first levels. It’s very “light”, let you focus on a game, almost as the game itself has been made for it. Or at least by programmers influenced by its vibrating sounds.

If you like listening to calm electronic sounds, those few tracks from mini-album, would fit perfectly to your music collection. Especially as the music itself won’t cost you a penny. Go to The Humble Indie 2 or Hemisphere Games website and get yourself a copy.  And if you are not a type of person who like ambient, I almost 100% sure you would enjoy the game.