Description
EARTHBOUND is an action-packed story-driven openworld imaginary game by yukiakino. Adore, explore, and restore the beauty of the dying planet Earth.

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STORY SYNOPSIS
The genre of the music is folk/industrial/electronic! It's a story-driven openworld base-building imaginary game by me about an advanced species of three avian birds named Robin, Wren, and Sparrow stumbles upon the Solar System in which they find a world past its prime.

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NOTES
I suggest to read the track meanings to understand well why it's composed like that. But, either way is fine! I also suggest that you close your eyes and imagine. And you can also not. Do what you want :)

Also, If your download speed is low you can stream the tracks in Soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/yukiakino07/sets/earthbound-ost

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TRACK THEMES AND MEANINGS
SONGBIRDS
This soundtrack tells the tale of the great civilization of the Songbirds, in which we find our curious main characters; Robin, Sparrow, and Wren who specialize in cosmic exploration. Their elders receive a distress signal lightyears away. Out of curiosity and responsibility, our trio of songbirds have yet again set out on their journey to dwell into the hidden wonders across the milky way.

HIRAETH (GOING DEEPER)
According to a legend told by their elders, the evergreen and pelagic planet was once flourishing with all kinds of life forms. As they recall this story, they soon discover the planet itself in which the system of their spaceship indicates the planet was once named by its inhabitants as “Earth.” As their duty, they begin to descend into one of the planet’s continents and admire what’s left.

META-SILICA
As they continue exploring and trying to find any signs of biological life, what appears to be an automaton has suddenly started to hunt our songbirds with no sufficient reason. It seems that its only reasoning is to hunt and destroy anything using its net and hook. With their experience, our songbirds take turns to use their abilities to distract and dismantle the cause of harm.

As they dismantle the automaton, they soon find out that its system has been corrupted by something with greater power, with this knowledge they are driven to find out the secrets of the world.

XANADU
Finding any source of life is exhaustingly difficult, but not for our songbirds. They believe that every biological lifeform deserves a chance to rebuild their civilization. Their goal as of the moment is to venture into countless biomes and head to a huge city with towering skyscrapers as they might find the source of operation there.

As they roam the land and seas, they prove themselves that they are right, they encounter towering heights of mountains and vast seas that reflect the beauty of the star it’s orbiting, they used to call the “Sun.” Not only that, they encounter cultural heritage of what once lived here, they see colorful differences through traditional and avant garde creations. They thought to themselves that “what used to live on this planet should have a chance to restart anew.”

HUMAN NATURE
They soon encounter one of the many cities that became an abandoned civilization; they soon realize what they discovered was one of the major experimental bureaus. Robin asked them to split up to search for clues regarding the incident that happened.

Sparrow finds a laboratory which was filled with the equipment that were used to create such automatons. Thousands of prototypes were discarded and can be seen within the sparrow's peripheral vision.

Wren discovers countless video tapes that were filled with the aftermath; blood-curling screams, fighting what they built, and realizing their mistakes.

Robin stumbled upon an administration office. It contained all the files that they needed to find out from the whole incident. “Humans” were what used to rule the very planet they were currently on. These humans merely started out with gadgets and droids to improve their day-to-day living. Robin seems to notice a name that keeps appearing in every document, “Gehazi O. Dionysus.” Gehazi orchestrated the whole plan, he vowed to help humankind with his knowledge. Then it came, an artificial intelligence was provided freely for everyone to access at the cost of their basic needs. Automatons were being manufactured left and right. Countless letters addressed to Gehazi were never opened, they all asked him to halt his plan as backlash and concern for safety was already arising, but his greed knew no bounds.

BLASPHEMIA
Aghast they may be, they ventured to hunt the root of this problem. Speakers erupt in a nearby city with towering skyscrapers, he who calls himself “GOD” stands among thousands of automatons with only ferocity left in their coding.
With no fear, the songbirds began to strike and dismantle every single automaton that came in their way.

The songbirds caught “GOD’s” attention. He yearned to fulfill his bloodlust, he took it upon himself to destroy these biological life forms. The battle between the songbirds against he who calls himself “GOD” and his creations went on until they can make sure that neither of the other would survive.

As time passes, “GOD” cannot sustain much of the damage he received from the songbirds, he takes his time to distract the trio with his automatons while he recharges.

MELIORISM (REBIRTH)
For a split second, their hard work paid off. The songbirds were able to dismantle “GOD,” one cut from a wire was able to instantly shut off all automatons. They opened a storage area inside its body, and they found a picture of a family. They realize that he who calls himself “GOD” was a cyborg, he was once human. He once was Gehazi O. Dionysus, a genius that was ahead of his peers yet was a loving husband and a caring father for her baby daughter.

Robin, Wren, and Sparrow went to look around quite a bit in the area nearby. Not long after, they find a trapdoor’s bunker that leads to a passageway. A huge underground space can be seen where plants, animals, and most importantly, humans, thrive with what they have. The population seems to be way smaller; hundreds compared to what was once billions. The songbirds approached the humans and recapped them from what was going on outside. The humans, shocked as they have just seen alien life forms, were hesitant but were happy to know that everything is finally safe.

The humans were astonished to still see some beauty into what once was wrecked. The songbirds helped them rebuild their land, prioritizing their needs, and providing them some resources.

HEREAFTER (TAKE OFF)
As their journey on Earth reaches an end, the humans go off with them to their spaceship to bid farewell. Each of them offered something that held great value in their hearts. A shy and curious child was last to give her gift. Her gift is quite peculiar, a seed. A seed that symbolized hope, rebirth, and progress. A seed that made sure they were able to survive underground for so long. Seeds may have once been abundant for humans, but it no longer was.

The songbirds have never seen this before, yet they were happy to accept it. Because they knew that they carry the aspirations and ambitions of the civilization they rebuilt.

Robin, Wren, and Sparrow bid their final goodbyes to the humans. They hop off their space ship back to their planet. Until then, their future journey towards the next mystery awaits them.

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STUFF
I used FL Studio! And i made it under 4 days so it's kinda rushed... but i had fun with it so it's okay

Message from the artist
HOW I COMPOSED THEM

I made all the tracks in under four days! I was really inspired by really loud electronic music (like underscores, Ninajirachi, Porter Robinson, Slayyyter, INJI, Charli XCX, ADELA, and more). It sounds too technological for the image theme, so then I came up with the idea of mixing folk music with it! I don’t know if I succeeded in fusing the genres or like making a straightforward story about it, but I had fun and that’s all it mattered for me.

The story was based on our real-life problems with AI, that this is what gonna happen to earth if we keep using AI. Day by day, generative AI are draining our waters and heating up our society with these fuck-ass data centers. I integrated the idea of forgetting and the songbirds hearing the “music” (wind, thunder, ocean, the breeze – our natural music).

What I interpreted in the image is that it looks really folk and indie, hence the reason why I fused industrial music + folk music.

All of this was made in 4 days, starting off with SONGBIRDS, then BLASPHEMIA, then I just made more tracks along the way. Then I arranged the tracks based on what vibes or feelings it was giving, then me and my boyfriend started to write up the story. My cousin’s girlfriend drew the image for me!

It was really pressuring with all of my other commitments outside my music hobby but I’m glad I was able to pull this off. I had fun since I think I excel in composing and producing folk music which the text image is really giving off.

Overall, I had looots of fun. I hope you enjoy my submission for OST Composing Jam 9. See you on the 10th!

Theme

Songs of a Forgotten World

Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
My music contains folk-themed instruments which the picture theme is highly giving off and I integrated the songs of a forgotten world in my story.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/yukiakino07/sets/earthbound-ost

Number of tracks
8

Genre

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project