- Control Resonantcomposer Petri Alanko says the game’s “nightmarish” open environment influenced his approach to creating the soundtrack
- He says he “tried not to re-doInception” because “That would’ve been a tad tacky” and “reduced Remedy’s concept”
- Alanko says “Accentuating Dylan’s starting point” was the origin point for conceptualizing the music within the open-world environment
Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has shared how the game’s new setting influenced the soundtrack compared to the first game, and how it helped him represent the protagonist, Dylan.
The Control sequel takes place in a warped version of Manhattan, a totally new environment from the first game’s interior setting of The Oldest House, which offers more “open-world” exploration and pushes players to engage in side content alongside the main story.
The setting has been compared to Christopher Nolan’s Inception, with its surreal art style and gravity-defying buildings; however he didn’t want to copy the movie because it would have diminished Remedy’s storytelling
“I tried not to re-do Inception,” Alanko said. “That would’ve been a tad tacky and would have reduced Remedy’s concept to something less worthwhile. I don’t personally believe in replicating or redoing, although in some rare cases an homage is fitting, actually, but such cases are indeed very few.”
He added, “It was a great relief that we exited The Oldest House and used the nightmarish Manhattan-like surroundings for the game setting,” with the scale of the buildings being a within such a huge world
“It’s beautiful, epic, majestic even,” Alanko explained. “There’s so much more to the scenery than just the buildings; it’s about the scale and the feeling, feeling small and replaceable… how would you represent Dylan there so that one felt he’d be irreplaceable? That was the
The composer went on to say that “Accentuating Dylan’s starting point was an origin point for conceptualizing the music and among the first things I did,” explaining that since Dylan is “a blank slate,” it helped formulate the tracks to go alongside his journey.
“He’s a blank slate, a tabula rasa, and he’s to recover and become first a human, then something else,” he said. “Hence the descending nature of the harmony of ‘Tabula Rasa’ and the clangorous percussion — it’s an introduction to Dylan and Hedron, in simple terms, a little like a concert overture.
“One could easily think the undulating noisy sounds towards the end would represent breathing – or, breathing again after a coma – for both the protagonist and the antagonist. I wanted to express the fragility and how brittle Dylan actually was, from how little he started, and where he ended up.”
Control Resonant is playable now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.
