No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe

"No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe" is a two-album soundtrack for the titular video game. It was 65daysofstatic's second soundtrack album, released in August 2016 on Laced Records (Hello Games in the US).

While the first album focuses on more traditional song structures, the second explores vaster soundscapes, quite similarly to the procedural music that appears in the video game.

## Additional Music

A wonderful track titled "Path Finder" can be found on the band's Discord and the Pathfinder update page.

## History

This soundtrack album was recorded during January and February 2015 at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire. The recordings were made by Dave Sanderson (assisted by Adam Sennitt). Additional recordings were made by Dave Sanderson at 2Fly Studios in Sheffield, and by 65daysofstatic during an extended period of time between 2014 and 2015. It was mixed at Castle Of Doom in Glasgow by Tony Doogan. It was mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios in January 2016.

The second album featuring soundscapes was recorded and mixed by 65daysofstatic at 65HQ between 2014 and 2015, with the exception of track 2.5 (the segment titled "Contrastellar").

Regarding how the collaboration between Hello Games and the band came to be, Paul Wolinski explained:

> A couple of years ago, shortly before the announcement trailer for the game, they got in touch with us asking if they could use our song Débutante from our 2010 record. They told us a bit about [the project] and we wrote back to them and said "yeah, probably, but can you let us know more?" – just to keep an eye on where our music is being used.
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> They sent us back some more info with screenshots. It was called 'Project Skyscraper' at the time. It was immediately apparent to us that it was going to be amazing [and] they already had that whole aesthetic of the world. So we wrote back and said "Yep, cool, you can use that music. Do you have anyone to do the soundtrack to the game yet? Because if not, we should probably talk!"
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## Personnel

* Rob Jones: drums, electronics, co-composer.
* Joe Shrewsbury: guitars, electronics, co-composer.
* Paul Wolinski: guitars, keyboards, electronics, co-composer.
* Simon Wright: bass guitar, electronics, co-composer.
* Debbie Clare: vocals on tracks 1.2 and 1.4.

## Album Art

Art direction for this album was part of the band's long-running collaboration with Caspar Newbolt, although the painting is the work of John Delucca.

## Live Performances

In March 2017, Sony posted a live studio performance of three tracks from this soundtrack.

## Song uses in the game

Although the game's trailers often feature the track "Debutante", it was not featured on this album, being part of their previous fourth album.

While the album's tracks are never heard in the same format in-game, being procedurally altered and generated, it can be stated that:

* "Asimov" is often heard during fights.
* Some elements of "Heliosphere" are heard when you achieve milestones.
* "Supermoon" is featured in the game's ending sequence.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://the65republic.com/no-mans-sky-music-for-an-infinite-universe-soundscapes/
2. ↑ https://www.wired.co.uk/article/no-mans-sky-65daysofstatic-interview