Play soundtrack
Garden of Light's itch.io pageRate this soundtrack
In order to rate this submission you must be logged into itch.io and have submitted your own entry. Anyone with an account can leave a comment.
Description
(Check out our game page to learn more about the OST and the story!)
Garden of Light is an Adventure-RPG where you play as a young moth travelling to the top of a treacherous mountain, where beautiful landscapes and dangerous monsters await.
Synopsis:
At the peak of an enormous mountain exists a magical tree named the Tree of Light. This singular plant acts as the sole pillar responsible for maintaining balance throughout the land simply known as the Garden. After the tree mysteriously begins to rot, life in the Garden starts to change for the worse. Villages perish from famine and disease, strange creatures begin ravishing the land, and hope among the Garden's people is slowly being fizzled out. Many adventurers have left their homes in hopes of finding answers at the peak, but none have ever returned. You, the moth, must make the trek to the top of the mountain where you will explore unique, magical biomes and fight strange creatures. Along the way, you slowly uncover the history of an ancient civilization lost to time, whose knowledge could be the key to ending this nightmare.
Genres: Orchestral, Ambient, Electronic
DAWs used were Studio One, Logic, and Ableton
Message from the artist
"This has been such an equally intense and fun challenge! As a team we set our ambitions pretty high, but I really feel like we delivered. It feels awesome to have a week pass and you’ve created not only a soundtrack, but a world too. Thanks for listening, we really hope you enjoy :))"
- DACELO
"Despite how difficult it was trying to balance out the time I spent working on this album with college, I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to work on such an ambitious passion project alongside some of my closest friends. It was such an amazing experience coming up with concepts and a storyline that by the end of it, I was pretty sad when I remembered that this isn't even a real game. Our team had so many different ideas for tracks and parts of the story, but due to time constraints, a lot of these concepts didn't end up on the album. Despite this, the team's still pretty happy with what we've managed to come up with in just a week, and I sincerely hope that you'll enjoy listening to our album as much as we enjoyed making it."
- OSHUATT
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
In Garden of Light, you explore the remnants of an ancient civilization within the confines of the Garden's mountain. I hope the area themes especially paint a picture of the wonders of this world, as well as the sadness of there being less little creatures to enjoy it. This contrast of scenic beauty and melancholy is the main thing I wanted the listener to experience.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/dacelo/sets/garden-of-light-ost-composing?si=5b09f5753f484e39ba3cbbb7baeaf41b&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Number of tracks9
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Remarkable care and attention brought throughout the soundtrack's entire runtime. Hardly any flaw or critique can be found with neither the concept nor execution of the compositions. Its instrumentation brings out clear Hollow Knight influence with hints of Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild with the piano that combine nicely in its dramatic and atmospheric scope. One can easily imagine this among the top peers of its genre should a complete game be realized in its image.
The whole soundtrack is really impressive in its range of dynamics and imaginative melodies and landscapes. There is a turning point, though, from a more classically contained environment you slowly become more and more experimental-like, especially by the end of Cliff Dwellings, followed by Glowfish Caves and The Top. Perhaps reminiscent of a blend of composers? ;) Anyway, by far my favourite is Little Moth. Quite magical :) I think I heard it some five times in a row!
Hollow with the light within, the knight ventures ever deeper into the darkness of a dead kingdom that now merely attempts to recreate life.
That is how I hear your music; it reminds me of a blend of Celeste and Hollow Knight with some scottish vibe.
Beautiful work ! I absolutely loved "Introduction", I found the composition just gorgeous. Overall it was a wonderful OST with a great storytelling.
Very great job !
this sounds so beautiful woww,,.. i absolutely loved the composition all throughout this soundtrack, it really fits this big story that's also really interesting by itself
my favs are The Forest, Glowfish Caves, and Finale!!!!!!!!
Beautiful and very magical! Love how it travels between fantastical and very tender melodies. A joy to listen. Reminds me a bit of Ori and the Blind Forest :)
Like the snare work on Village. Loved the Whimsy of The Forest, a little bit like Yann Tiersen. But Garden of Light was my favourite, loved the tenderness and organic keys.
Can definitely feel the narrative thread throughout the album, which was sick. One thing I'd say is that I felt if very suddenly got dark near the end, almost abruptly. And a would have been cool to have resolution after the final battle, be it hopeful or melancholic.
But all in all, this is great work!
Thank you! We actually had an epilogue planned and written, but as is the nature of these we ran out of time to include it 👎. Glad you enjoyed!
Garden of light - I enjoyed how the melody developes over the whole phrase
Little moth - very delicate upper register piano, love the shifting Lydian harmony, is this recorded or automated? Feels very impressionist in a modern way, like a Joe hisaishi score
Village - fantastic arrangement, really like how you fit alot of harmony while maintaining a folk sound. The minor major duality is done really well. If you could share what folk instrument vsts you used that would be awesome.
Forest - great pizzicato, and the percussion complements really well. All your melodies are so strong! And all the 2-5-1s are very creatively placed. The harmonic rhythm in general was very pleasing. Only wished I could hear what happens after the change to 3!
Cliff dwellings - such a cool sound from that arpeggio, what a creative way of using dorian/melodic minor. Love how it adapts with the harmony. Want to link this to every submission that fails to do that lol. Got a bit jumpscared by the solo synth, maybe check the velocities.
Glowing caves - feels like a bit of a continuation of the previous track, the harp taking over was nice. The shifting key changes was very dramatic and resolved really nicely to the lydian bit.
The top - reminded me of rain world, the feeling of climbing a huge structure.
Finale - similar to previous track, until orchestral comes in. Felt like a merging of different styles, which makes sense as a joint project. I'm super curious to know how you delegated your workflow.
I loved so much of this. Garden of light through to glowing caves feels like a great narrative ark and I can see the through line between it all, otherwise it feels like there's gaps that need filling (as you'd expect with so little time). I was super excited to check this out after last year and you didn't disappoint! I'm going to have to study some of the progressions because I want to steal them hehe
Thanks so much for listening! Most of the piano and a variety of other parts were recorded live via midi keyboard, then tweaked. On Village, I used a tin whistle patch from Vienna Synchron, accordion by Le Parisien, and a mandolin patch from Omnisphere. And you’re right, that volume spike in Cliff Dwellings is rough, only happened on the final export and I guess I missed it 😔. So glad you liked the album :)
wow the theme and the story is super well thought out and i think all of the tracks support that really well. great composition, awesome arrangements and i love the fact that i end up in a completely different place by the end of the album.
thought this was pretty alright when it started. then got to the village track and it really got better and better. so evocative and cool, especially when reading the game description.
favorite track was the forest, chords reminded me a little of this:
amazing work guys
Introduction: such a stunning switch into the orchestral part. The trills and strings sound truly magical here! Even the piano playing is stunningly realistic. An extremely strong start!
Garden of Light: a very delicate, minimal, and effective piano melody. The warm, intimate swells of the orchestra are a lovely complement. This is a masterful use of color.
Little Moth: the fluttering, delicate piano feels like an imitation of the moth's fluttering wings. It's super animated and characterful. Loving the Lydian!
Village: classic village music. Love that flute patch!
The Forest: I literally said 'oh my God' when the shaker came in. This is refreshingly light, almost bossanova-ey, but in a forest level way. I'm taking notes on your ability to add a touch of sparkle... this is just brimming with ideas.
Cliff Dwellings: I love the subtle percussion, it really makes this one shine for me.
Glowfish Caves: Those dense, swelling string chords in the beginning are just fabulous. There's lots of whimsy in this one, and I like when the harmony dips into dubious places, balancing a sense of wonder with danger and mystery.
The Top: this piece is a strong contrast to the rest of the soundtrack. It immediately creates a strong sense of dread. Itching to see what happens next.
Finale: Extraordinary transition into the boss battle music! Really exemplary battle music. I'm glad to see you aren't afraid to change the meter! It keeps things so fresh--never a dull moment throughout the soundtrack.
I can hear a lot of the Cinematic Studio Solo Strings here, and I must say your usage of them texturally is really inspiring. You two have accomplished a lot together! I'd love to hear more about the collaborative process here! You two have stood out as some of the finest musicians I've ever seen in this competition, and should be very proud. Keep writing!
fantastic production quality and overall composition ESPECIALLY the piano throughout the ost!! I love how airy yet curious the piano lines are, the ost as a whole did a wonderful job of putting the listener into whatever world/game area it was meant for i do wish the finale was a bit longer/perhaps a bit more intense? but that's pretty much it everything else is STELLAR!!!!
thanks so much! that means a lot coming from you 🙏
The journey is all there and every track establishes clear characters in both the Little Moth and the settings. Like how the intro shows what the world is supposed to be like and then the very next track shows what it is now, and you can feel something is missing. Then we get to the top and the whole mood shifts to this intrusion/infection which has taken hold of the tree and... man. There's whimsy and darkness, and it was very easy to picture exactly where I was with every track. Beautifully done
Spot on the intention!! Thanks so much for listening 🐦⬛
Oh wow, this is absolutely GORGEOUS.
Introduction: Whimsical and engaging, without detracting from the theme relevance. Absolute earcandy in such a way that I wasn't sure was possible outside of electronic genres. I was thoroughly invested throughout.
Garden of Light: If you've heard the phrase "Less is only more if you KNOW what more is, and actively choose to have less", it is CLEAR to me that you know what more is. Give me big "The Long Dark" vibes, thematically pulling me into some kind of world lost to the perils of nature.
I haven't got the time as of yet to provide input on all your pieces, but MY gosh, I'll be adding your music to my list of inspirations to derive from, among the likes of Toby Fox, C418, James Primate and Lena Raine.
Thank you so much for listening to our submission! It's funny that you should mention Toby Fox, as his music and games definitely were a huge inspiration in both writing the story and the music.
Every track in this playlist was beautiful. Sounds like something I would listen day-to-day. Really happy to listen to this.
Hi!! I love the composition of these pieces! Maybe the tracks could be tied together a bit better but I loved everything here!! Keep up the good work!!
Hey there! Here's a few notes I had while listening to your submission.
Garden of Light - Great use of dynamics in this piece, really gives this feeling of delicacy within this ecosystem.
Village - To me this piece feels like safety, and your description of this track is particularly evocative to me.
The Forest - The syncopation here between the melody and the backing instruments is excellent.
Cliff Dwellings - There's some neat worldbuilding with this track. IMO there could've been a touch better balancing between the instruments here, as I found myself adjusting the volume a bit on my end.
The Top - This was a really nice tonal shift in the submission. The low drones here are so very cool. Kinda wish there was a bit more to this track as I really like this kind of music.
Overall this was a very enjoyable grouping of tracks that had a lot of coherence and nicely accompanied the storytelling. If I had to give any feedback here it would be, as mentioned above, I found myself adjusting the volume on my end quite a bit near the end of the submission. The last few tracks felt a bit louder than those at the beginning to my ears.
Thanks for sharing what you've made, keep up the good work :)
This has huuuuuge Hollow Knight vibes, and even if you didn't make it on purpose i like that anyways. Finale's intro is also good, didn't expect something dark like that.