Dark Music Review – The Old City OST
Written By Casey Douglass
This 15 track soundtrack by Atrium Carceri was composed for the Narrative Philosophical game The Old City. Soothing string like atmospheres, distorted drones and brooding atmospheres carry the listeners throughout the album.
I
always felt that many of Atrium Carceri’s tracks depicted what it
might be like to wander through a strange city. Now, in the guise of
The Old City OST, that impression has become concrete as it is
the soundtrack for a game which features just such a city. Sadly, I
have yet to play the game, but this soundtrack has been on my
permanent rotation for a good few weeks now.
The
album starts with “Intro / Menu” which is one of my favourite
tracks. Distorted piano is backed by a soft drone. Haunting vocals
really evoke such a feeling of melancholy that even re-listening to
it while I type this has made my eyes prickle. Other emotive tracks
are “Childhood I” and “Childhood II”, compositions that make
great use of notes that mimic a slow music box, some notes lagging
behind the others slightly, others in perfect harmony, with some
quite epic vocals intoning around them in “Childhood II”.
Not
all of the tracks are melancholy or so emotive however. Some sound
more primal, like a force of nature. The 10+ minute track “Leviathan”
is a rumbling string-infused piece that certainly hints at something
large and unseen, yet possibly not hostile. The brief track
“Underground” echoes with a thrumming movement and is a more
jarring soundscape.
Other
tracks create great rhythms that lace the gloomy backgrounds with
melodies that get stuck in your mind. “Journey Home” is a great
example of this, featuring a great 3-note hook that the rest of the
soundscape can easily hang from.
There
are no tracks that I disliked, they all have their own charm and
unique take on the audio theme of the album. Some are longer, more
subtle journeys, others are short interludes of grief or nostalgia,
like the sun breaking through a sky scarred by the clouds of a
nuclear winter. This is an album of murk that has a tenderness to it
brought through by the clever use of piano and vocals. I can only
hope that Atrium Carceri does more soundtrack work as this is a
fantastic album for any dark ambient fan’s collection. With this in
mind, I give The Old City OST 4.5/5 and heartily recommend it!
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: The Old
City OST
Artist: Atrium Carceri
Label: Cryo Chamber
Written, Produced and
Mastered by: Simon Heath
