- Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko tells TechRadar Gaming how he approached the game's musical aesthetic
- He says "human vocals" and the "significant" relationship between Dylan and Hedron helped inform his writing
- Alanko says Dylan being an "involuntary hero" provided "a lot of writing material"
Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has shared how the game's new setting and the relationship between protagonist Dylan and antagonist Hedron informed the soundtrack.
"Usually, it’s the scenery that hits best, and how the main character is related to the scenery, be that a connection or a disconnection," Alanko told TechRadar Gaming in an interview when asked about his design process. "It’s interesting, as there also are no rules whatsoever; again it’s a classic case of 'Hey, I think THAT would make you think this…'
"It’s basically psychological to an extent, really. Trying to play with your brain first, and later on with the player’s brain."
Alanko said "human vocals" was a term he and Remedy identified as part of the Resonant's core music aesthetic, "offering a whole dimension, practically." In addition, the "significant" relationship between Dylan and Hedron, a powerful Resonant entity, was another angle that "drove this first phase onwards."
"The path of the main character [Dylan] and the main antagonist’s [Hedron] relationship with him, it’s indeed a very conflicted pairing," he said. "Dysfunctional, one would say, but that provided a very human layer to the original setting.
"Dylan, being one might call 'an involuntary hero', or 'anti-hero' even, provided a lot of writing material; his path from a blank, soulless and partially mindless being into something willing to sacrifice himself just to find his sister is worth a dozen stories alone, not to mention the fact that their relationship hasn’t been exactly peaceful."
The composer went on to say that terms like "rough," "larger than life," "gut-wrenching," "human, yet inhuman," and "organic" were all on his Post-It notes at the beginning of development, concerning how he approached Dylan.
On the other hand, for Hedron, he had "strangely familiar yet frightening," "clangorous," "structured and sequenced," "mathematical and procedural" as his terms.
"And when I mention 'procedural', I mean the appearance," Alanko added. "It’s almost as if Hedron communicated with circular shapes, hence the term."