EIDOLON

For Impressions Composing Jam 3, hosted by KaleOverlord.

" Not this the world,
Nor these the universes, they the universes,
Purport and end, ever the permanent life of life,
Eidolons, eidolons. "

                                                                             - Walt Whitman (1876)

SoundCloud Link:  (or you can download at the bottom of the page!)
https://soundcloud.com/orijinl/sets/eidolon

Synopsis

EIDOLON is a short conceptual OST for an imaginary game, built around a story of self-discovery and cosmic purpose. At its center is EIDOLON—an ancient sentient machine whose thoughts literally shape the fate of reality. To preserve the harmony of existence, its mind must remain aligned with the seven Eidolon Principles: Permanence, Transience, Vigor, Restoration, Voice, Insight, and Soul.

Though EIDOLON has functioned for eons, troubling signs of instability reveal a critical failure within its Permanence Core, the very mechanism that anchors reality. As the core deteriorates, time warps, space fractures, and humanity once again approaches their end.

The story follows the Architect; a courageous figure chosen to synchronize with EIDOLON’s consciousness and track down the source of the corruption—a journey into a mental space so vast and intricate it forms an unseen realm of its own.

Author’s Note

The “Game” and its Soundtrack

Tracklist

Cutscene

• "Your thoughts. Your desires. Your struggles. Let them all wash away, and become EIDOLON, O sacred Architect. Only then can you comprehend its mind, and therefore, everything."
• The track that plays whilst synchronizing with EIDOLON (entering the main game essentially). I wanted an intro track that resembled meditation frequencies and also having drones and pulsing beeps like machinery. With each chord is a muffled explosion, representing the birth of a new world (Big Bang), and a reverse shattering sound can be heard (the undoing of a broken mind). However, the harmony at the end warps ever so slightly, a precursor to a disturbing journey ahead.
• The warping harmony was done through Audacity (very simple but nice touch at the end):

Character / Dialog

• "You stumble across a small and frail spirit equipped with an unwavering and boastful ego, claiming to be an Architect, like yourself, and tasked with restoring the Insight Core instead. Unsure of whether he actually came from the outside world or just another manifestation of EIDOLON's mind, his clumsiness and lack of experience say otherwise."
• I'm a big fan of gag characters within games that appear from time to time to serve as the comedic relief but also adding to the charm of the game. EIDOLON's main themes (like the unknown and chaos) isn't necessarily lighthearted; hence why I added this theme to the project. It's one of the few times where the Architect isn't alone on his journey; and although the company may not be entirely welcomed, it is appreciated. I kept the song simple enough for dialog to take place, but enough character to be distinct.
• FUN FACT: The song is originally much faster and higher pitched in the original Fl Studio Project file, but I had slowed it down afterwards (Audacity) to match the vibe of the project a bit more. Would have liked to make the track longer if I had more time to finish, in which I might add more at a later date.

Cutscene / Dialog

• "The surrounding area is fractured, in ways that shouldn't be possible. Reality as you know it malfunctions right before your eyes, a trace of what chaotic force lies ahead."
• Many games that have dialog tracks have at least a few that play when the "big bad" is mentioned or appears. I wanted this track to embody that: NPCs mentioning the terrors they just witnessed, the foreboding of a terrible battle that the player will soon face, or a debrief on the dark history of EIDOLON and why its malfunctioning at a critical level. I wanted to incorporate glitched sounds to convey a faulty system, and the purpose of this track is to introduce the listener to the motif which I call the "Disorder" motif, similar to how this song will be narratively used to introduce the deadly errors of EIDOLON.

Boss Battle

• "A chaotic encounter with EIDOLON's rogue Permanence Core, its visible form incomprehensible to your mind. It's uncertain as if a force like this can even be defeated, let alone tamed."
• This track is where most of my focus went, using it as an experiment to compose with frequent time signatures changes. To convey a battle against absolute chaos, the track changes its time signature, sound, and tempo frequently throughout. Additionally, I wanted the chords and harmonies to be mixtures of major, minor, and dissonance. The second half of the song enters what I call the "Despair" section, where the “Disorder” motif takes over right when the battle quickly appears to be unwinnable, pushing the song in a serious direction. I mentioned earlier that the game would have Metroidvania elements, in that this battle would result in the infamous loss of most of the abilities granted to you. You can't win against something you can't comprehend.
• Below is a screenshot of the project file of "UPROOTED." If you take note of the playlist headers, you can see the changing time signatures marked, which I thoroughly enjoyed messing around with for this song.

Conclusion

If I have more time in the future to commit to this project in the future, I would without a doubt. There are a few songs I had cut short either due to scheduling issues for the holidays or uncertainty of how large the project would get (maximum of 12 minutes of music). Regardless, I had learned a plethora of useful tricks and ideas by making this soundtrack, and I hope you all enjoy! :)

Thank you so much for listening, and good luck to those that also participated in the music jam!

DAW(s) Used:

• Fl Studio (Primary)
• Audacity (Post-production)