1. Cave 1
2. Gathering 6
3. Gathering 7
4. Cave 2
5. Danger 3
6. Danger 4
7. Cave 3
8. Gathering 8
9. Gathering 9
10. Cave 4
11. Cave 5
12. Exploration 7
13. Exploration 8
14. Exploration 9
15. Cave 6
16. Gameplay 8
17. Gameplay 9
18. Solar Score
cd/download, 15 December 2017
Stream and/or buy at Bandcamp
or send an with your order
Since the succesful launch of the sci-fi adventure game Astroneer, the developers at System Era tworked hard on making the game better, and expanding it. And with this expansion, a whole lot of additional music was needed. Of the 50 or so new themes, I selected my favorite 18 and edited them to the versions found on this new Volume 2 album.
Compared to the first volume, I'd say the tracks on this album are a bit more beat-oriented and robust. Maybe a bit more playful as well. In any case, it's quite different to my regular output as Machinefabriek.
If you're a gamer (which, strangely, I am not), and you haven't checked out Astroneer yet, you should. It's a beautifully made, medative and exciting game, available for PC and Xbox. More info about the in the Steam link below.
The Astroneer Volume 2 album is released digitally (streaming and as download), and on CD, in a limited edition of 150 copies.
More about the Astroneer game
Check out the first volume of the Astroneer soundtrack
Review
Vital Weekly
Over the years music by Machinefabriek popped up 64 times in our podcast, the name of the person behind it, Rutger Zuydervelt, 9 times. I am sure I also reviewed some of his work on vinyl. That is in little over ten years quite an accomplishment (not the reviewing but the production of so much music). One would think that Zuydervelt is at times on a repeat mission, as it is surely not always possible to keep changing tunes all the time. On a few occasions he did something radically different, and one such release was with what turned out to be the first volume of ‘Astroneer’, the soundtrack to a computer name of the same name (see Vital Weekly 1062). As I said back then I never ever played a computer game in my life, or will I ever devote any time to them (unless of course someone asks me to deliver some soundtrack). I don’t have to play computer games either, when reviewing this CD. I am sure if I would ‘know’ more about the game, I would understand the music better, but as with music for dance and film soundtracks, I am sure that by releasing the music independently from the game/dance/film someone think it is worthwhile to hear independently.
The first volume of ‘Astroneer’ was, as said, quite a surprise, and so is the second volume. This time around Zuydervelt offers eighteen pieces of music, usually around two to three minutes and as before all of this is very musical, poppy even. It moves away from the long form abstract, ambient music that Zuydervelt is known for, either as Machinefabriek or under his own name, music made with crackling sine waves, sampled bass guitar and music boxes. On ‘Astroneer Volume 2’, he plays guitar notes, has synthesizer melodies and rhythm machines, playing sparse melodies, melancholic tunes, joyful songs and cosmic ditties. All of these pieces are short and to the point. Sometimes I wished a piece would be longer and not as sketch like as they are now, but I guess one can’t have it all. It is all wonderful and lovely sketchy pieces of music here, and something totally (well, almost) different from the man’s usual output.
Subjectivisten
In de 18 tracks van bijna 52 minuten lang brengt hij een fraaie kruisbestuiving van ambient, noise, drones, krautrock, wave, film- en experimentele muziek, waarbij hij een soort toekomstige liefdesbaby van John Carpenter, Svarte Greiner, Adamennon, David Lynch en Jean Michel Jarre lijkt. En dat is een waarachtig mooi kind geworden. Muziek die ook niet-gamers zal overtuigen.
