Get the soundtrack here:
Hank Morgan – “It Begins with a Bush” (1:46) [DR11]
Used on: #00 “It Begins with an Ending”
I, to be frank and honest, never thought it would see the light of day. What was once a half-cocked idea of mine turned into me scamming three of the craziest artists in the community into making a soundtrack for one of my favorite scenarios. –Hank
You can blame the title on me. It refers to an argument about, of all things, Rubicon’s bushes that indirectly resulted in me not speaking to one of its participants for around a year. I suggested that the soundtrack should contain a reference to it, and everyone else concurred. –Aaron
Talashar – “Rozinante” (4:55) [DR11]
Used on: #66 “Rozinante I”
Interpolates: Alex Seropian, “Landing” (Marathon, 1994-12-21)
Obligatory Landing Track
:)
Talashar – “Chimera” (2:24)
Used on: #37 “Veni vidi cursavi”
Talashar – “Honk If You’re an Underpaid Cyborg” (13:53) [DR8]
Interpolates: Mark Sumner, “Alien Voyage” (Marathon 2 Special Edition, unknown date)
Used on: #02 “Honk If You’re an Underpaid Cyborg”
Hank insisted that we continue with the tradition of using Mark Sumner’s brilliant “Alien Voyage” to introduce each scenario. So I went for a slow and heavier remix of it to characterize the darker, more ominous interiors of the Chimera. –Talashar
Talashar – “Descent” (2:26) [DR7]
Used on: #03 “Like Flies on a Corpse”
Talashar – “Hypnos” (5:50) [DR9]
Greek script: «Ὕπνος»
Romanized: «Hýpnos»
Translation: “Sleep”
Used on: #03 “Like Flies on a Corpse”
This one is based on the main menu theme from Rubicon X. –Talashar
Talashar – “In the Heavens” (5:57) [DR9]
Used on: #04 “Five Finger Discount”
A Rubicon Preview track that was driving our testers insane because it was simply not enough for this behemoth of a level. –Talashar
Talashar – “You Are Lost” (3:03) [DR9]
Used on: #04 “Five Finger Discount”
…So I wrote a little extra…
Three guesses where the name of this song comes from. –Talashar
Talashar – “Haller” (9:50) [DR11]
Interpolates:
Used on: #04 “Five Finger Discount”
This starts with references to “Old Atlantic” by BlueGreenSnake, then transitions to…
Honestly, I don’t fully remember what the other part is; let us know in the comments! –Talashar
We reckon it was probably my track «Συνθήκη μετά Θεοῦ (Θέων ἄνω ἐκείνου βουνοῦ)» [“A Deal With God (Running Up That Hill)”], but we’re still not totally sure. –Aaron
Talashar – “Wheeling Hubcap Factory” (3:03) [DR10]
Used on:
BlueGreenSnake – “Serendipity” [3:36] (DR6)
Used on: #40 “We Dream You”
Originally meant for level 6 of Marathon Gamma, “Serendipity”. A stroll through the quiet part of a Pfhor ship, except it’s 2048 and it uses a completely unique texture set. –BGS
Talashar – “To Escape” (5:01) [DR8]
Used on: #04 “Hairy Legs”
This song was more inspired by NuMarathon, but it was an early candidate for Rubicon, and we all knew it was going to be used on this level. –Talashar
Talashar – “Candles” (5:01) [DR10]
Used on: #52 “Rozinante III”
Interpolates: Alex Seropian, “Swirls” (Marathon, 1994-12-21)
1. “sLowD + rEbErbmd”
2. perfengshun
Aaron Freed – “Dissolvēre populum ac ēligere alium” (5:20) [DR13]
Latin: “To Dissolve the People and Elect Another”
Used on: #25 “Sea of Slime”
Named after an immortal quote from German playwright Bertolt Brecht. This song itself is one of two songs inspired by David Wise’s “Aquatic Ambiance”; its piano and strings are also inspired by Radiohead’s “Glass Eyes”. It’s also one of the rare cases I used a Steinway; I generally prefer either the Yamaha C7 (for its brighter sound) or Bechstein (for its clearer note separation). –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Digitī” (6:10) [DR15]
Latin: “Fingers”
Used on: #25 “Sea of Slime”
Named after a song by British singer/songwriter Chinchilla, although I think I’m probably the only person in the universe that would actually make a connection between the two tracks. I began with a four-note pattern from her song and took it in a completely different direction. It’s also one of several manifestations of my obsession with dance beats in strange time signatures; it can be counted either as slow 𝟏𝟎
𝟒 or as five measures of fast 𝟒
𝟒. –Aaron
Talashar – “Grendel” (3:16) [DR8]
Used on: #31 “Cow Pushing”
Aaron Freed – “Blood on the Sequencer” (8:19) [DR13]
Used on: #31 “Cow Pushing”
This song title doesn’t mean anything; it was literally the only name I could think of when I saved the file, and I never thought of a better one (Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and the Marathon 2 Special Edition track “Blood on the Dancefloor” probably inspired it to some extent). The song itself is yet another 𝟓
𝟒 disco track; we ultimately put in on “Cow Pushing”, since it felt like a good fit for that level’s wacky terminals about bad translations of advertising slogans and the most repulsive food ever invented. Its length is a tribute to Marathon’s Story page maintainer Hamish Sinclair, in the tradition of Marathon Infinity’s fiendishly well-hidden easter egg “Hats Off to Eight Nineteen”. It’s not my first such tribute and undoubtedly won’t be my last. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Συνθήκη μετά Θεοῦ (Θέων ἄνω ἐκείνου βουνοῦ)» (8:40) [DR15]
Attic Greek: “A Deal with God (Running Up That Hill)”
Romanized: «Synthḗkē metá Theoû (Théōn ánō ekeínou bounoû)»
Used on: #14 “Molten Dihydrogen Oxide”
«Ἀμείβειν τὼ ἐμπειρίᾱ» (0:00–6:00) [DR16]
Attic Greek: “To Exchange Experiences”
Romanized: «Ameíbein tṑ empeiríā»
Inspired primarily by Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)”, which I consider the greatest pop song written in my lifetime, and quite possibly the second greatest pop song ever written after ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”. This is actually the result of my attempting to merge both songs’ sonic palettes, and it’s yet another manifestation of my fascination with dance beats in odd time signatures (𝟓
𝟒, in this case). –Aaron
«Κτίζειν Οὐτοπίᾱν» (6:00–8:40) [DR14]
Attic Greek: “To Create Utopia”
Romanized: «Ktízein Outopíān»
Inspired by another of my favorite pop songs, Ringo Sheena’s “Funeral Procession” (Japanese: 椎名 林檎’s「葬列」; Rōmaji: Shīna Ringo’s ｢Sōretsu｣), which is effectively what you’d get if you put Bach and the Beatles in a blender. I hadn’t really paid close attention to the lyrics of either “Funeral Procession” or “Running Up That Hill” until shortly before I wrote this song, and both hit me like a ton of bricks. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Lurkers in the Deep” (6:24) [DR12]
Additional mixing: hypersleep
Used on: #15 “Deep in the Aardvarks”
One of several pieces I wrote for another scenario that never made it there. We loved the atmosphere on this level! –Aaron
Talashar – “Hex Level 73” (8:44) [DR7]
Used on:
I LOVE HEX LEVEL 73
This song came easy. I really wanted to write a song for “Hex Level 73”. I fuck with this level. It really whips Treellama’s ass. –Talashar
BlueGreenSnake – “Darien Docking” (6:00) [DR8]
Used on: #26 “Okefenokee Tourist Trail”
Ok good, the spelling is correct. The collision synth turns out to be very versatile. Look out for samples of beetles that sound like jackhammers, as well as some good stuff from Ocular Sounds. –BGS
Talashar – “Anubis” (8:07) [DR10]
Used on:
I assigned this track here myself. Throk and others loved it! –BGS
It’s “Poor Yorick”… again! A classic Marathon callback track with some extras. –Talashar
Aaron Freed – «Malizia premeditata» (10:00) [DR12]
Italian: “Malice Aforethought”
Used on:
One of several repurposed songs originally written for another project. It came together very quickly and uses a grand total of two instruments: Yamaha CS-80 and Roland TR-808. (OK, fine, Cherry Audio’s GX-80 and Logic Pro’s TR-808 samples. What do I look like, Uncle Moneybags over here?) I’m really proud of the drum pattern, which consists of alternating measures of 𝟕
𝟒, 𝟏𝟑
𝟖, 𝟕
𝟒, and 𝟏𝟓
𝟖. It’s extraordinarily disorienting and a major component of this track’s nightmarish feel.This track became effectively the Tycho plank’s main theme («Κοιμητήριον» [“Graveyard”], one of my later tracks, uses the exact same drum pattern at a faster tempo), so we wound up using snippets of it in several levels. YouTube audience retention data and listener feedback suggest it’s my most popular Rubicon track and one of its most popular by any composer. I wasn’t expecting such an avant-garde track to be so popular, but I’m certainly not complaining. Perhaps we used it so often it got stuck in players’ heads, though I don’t entirely understand how that’s possible. –Aaron
Talashar – “Grendel Stands Alone” (13:49) [DR13]
Used on: #13 “Sodding the Logs”
Talashar – “Duality” (2:04)
Talashar – “Inertial Ocean” (6:12)
Used on: #05 “Bump and Grind”
Inspired by the Terminal Velocity soundtrack by Kyle Richards. –Talashar
Talashar – “Poor Yorick (Dance Remix)” (4:10) [DR6]
Used on: #82 “Make It Better, Like This”
“Poor Yorick”, but funky! –Talashar
Talashar – “Destroy and Rebuild” (4:13)
Used on: #46 “This Hurts Less Than… Uhh…”
Hearing this 5 semitones lower than normal in F minor instead of B♭ minor sounds strange but awesome at the same time! –BGS
Talashar – “Core Intrusion” (5:58) [DR8]
Used on:
Nah, it’s just interstitial music for “Hex Level” that I think is worth preserving. It flows better as its own track, and I placed it later on to represent “Beg, Borrow, and Steal”. –Talashar
Talashar – “Feel the Noise” (5:09) [DR11]
Used on: #20 “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt”
A medley of a handful of tracks from Feel the Noise, my Marathon 2 soundtrack. –Talashar
Aaron Freed – “Leela / Covenant Dance / 𓈖𓐍𓅱𓏏𓀁 𓈖𓏏 𓉡𓁥” (15:00) [DR13]
Middle Egyptian: “Hathor’s Lament”
Romanized: «Nḫj.t n.t Ḥw.t-Ḥr.w»
Anglicized: “Nekhwoot net Het-Heru”
Used on: #19 “Wading in Vitriol”
hi –Aaron
It kind of just wrote itself without me having to think about it. 50% Halo and Marathon, 50% Nobuo Uematsu. Everyone agreed it had to go on “Wading in Vitriol” as soon as they heard it. It’s my proudest contribution to this soundtrack and possibly my favorite track I’ve ever written.
A slightly different version of this will follow Nicholas Singer’s own magisterial “Leela / Covenant Dance” mashup on “Dark Grotto of the Lethe”, the pivotal level of Eternal X’s final chapter. Eternal’s Hathor is named for an Egyptian goddess, hence the Middle Egyptian title. Rubicon and Eternal have numerous connections, so it feels fitting for their soundtracks to share a song. –Aaron
“Leela / Covenant Dance (choral)” (11:16–15:00) [DR12]
Based on:
BlueGreenSnake – “Aperture God (modular synths)” (8:15) [DR11]
Used on: #36 “Toadstools”
For the record, I wasn’t operating the modular synths; those were my five other colleagues one day during my Interactive Music & Video unit. We were all given access to each recorded track, so I made this. The original “Aperture God” was used as the base track, accompanied by a cool visual made in TouchDesigner for our final assignment. –BGS
Aaron Freed – “Ambiēns aquātica” (6:40) [DR14]
Latin: “Aquatic Ambiance”
Used on:
This is probably this soundtrack’s oldest song; I wrote, arranged, mixed, and mastered it in a single night over two years ago, having heard its namesake (David Wise’s similarly titled Donkey Kong Country track) a grand total of once. I set out to make a song with a similar atmosphere but more energy, and this was the result. I doubt I’d have felt comfortable writing such a close pastiche had I been more familiar with it, but since my recollection of the song was far from perfect, I knew it wouldn’t end up close enough to qualify as plagiarism.
This track was a huge milestone in me finding my voice as a composer, so I owe Wise an enormous debt I doubt I can ever repay. It’s probably also a major reason Hank invited me to join this project to begin with: I think it was his favorite of my tracks until “A Deal with God”. –Aaron
BlueGreenSnake – “White Gold Game Show” (2:13) [DR12]
Used on: #27 “The White Room”
If you’re a new player, you’d better hope those white walls are soft and squishy because there’s a chance you might go insane if you’re playing on Total Carnage. Uses almost all QuickTime 2.x instruments, as well as the drum track from “Flippant”. Enjoy your carpet mortal prize! –BGS
Talashar & Hank Morgan – “The Gators of New York” (14:42) [DR8]
Used on:
I wanted to make a track that sounds like you’re being snuck up on in a dark alley, much like how this level sneaks up on you in the Salinger. Great level, hurts real good. –Hank
“Leave the earth to all its sin and hate
Find another world where freedom waits”
–Talashar (quoting Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void”, naturally)
BlueGreenSnake – “Laced with Andy” (1:12) [DR11]
Used on: #30 “people under the stairs”
Lol, with that level, all I did was smash down random keys on my Oxygen49 and call it a day. It’s solid, spooky, and weird. Fits with the Dangi sims. –BGS
BlueGreenSnake – “Electrical Fault” (3:01) [DR7]
Used on:
Made this one originally WAAAY back in 2022. Here in Australia, we use 240 volts at 50 Hz for our electricity. As a result, I tuned this piece to G400. If I lived somewhere else, say, Korea, it would be tuned to B480. –BGS
BlueGreenSnake – “Seven Pfhor Time” (4:21) [DR11]
Used on: #08 “The Exit Door Leads In”
Planned on having this on “10,001 Nordic Nerds”, but we moved it here to make way for Throk’s Gators Trilogy. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Could you imagine if I actually made it in 𝟓
𝟒 and showed it to a non-musician? –BGS
BlueGreenSnake – “Aperture God” (6:25) [DR11]
Used on: #09 “A Long Walk on a Short Pier”
The original “Aperture God”. I feel this should have gone first, but the modular synths work well on “Toadstools”, so here we are. Ableton tells me this track sounds good, judging by the CPU meter. “Oooo, it sounds cool and eerie.” –BGS
Talashar – “Tip the Scales” (4:00) [DR8]
Used on:
It’s just a rig ol’ biff. –Talashar
Talashar – “Apologize or Else” (6:45) [DR4]
Used on:
WoooaaAAHAHAHAooooH –Talashar
Aaron Freed – «Ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς» (3:36) [DR12]
Epic Greek: “Rosy-Fingered Dawn”
Romanized: «Rhododáktylos Ēṓs»
Used on: #57 “Rozinante VIII”
Inspired by Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “Dawn”, and named for an epithet that appears throughout Homer’s works. It’s only partly coincidence that, thanks to Christopher Nolan, Homer is in the popular consciousness again, as he’s never far from the popular consciousness. (I kept thinking scenes from Nolan’s film played like dramatic versions of scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail until I realized I’d gotten it backward: Python had mined Homer for comedic inspiration. The biggest giveaway: the Trojan Rabbit.)
This one came together extremely quickly; I think it took me about two hours of work. I considered expanding it further, but ultimately I think it works fine the way it is. –Aaron
BlueGreenSnake – “Distant Orbit” (5:04) [DR10]
Used on: #28 “Prize Payment Schedule”
Originally made for a level like “Okefenokee” or “Sucking Cherries”, but it never made it. Extended it with the same vocaloid as “Laced with Andy”. –BGS
BlueGreenSnake – “Drink Vacuum” (8:12) [DR11]
Used on: #23 “iwannavacuum”
I thought having no reverb and low release would help this track perfectly portray the feeling of being lost in space with no air, and then of course the level itself has the night wind ambient sound placed on every accessible polygon. –BGS
Aaron Freed – “You Wanted To” (4:20) [DR16]
Used on: #49 “The Dotted Line”
Inspired by Radiohead’s “In Limbo” and System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”. A strange combination of songs to use as inspiration for the same track, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
In a future release, we’ll use dynamic music so that the first minute will repeat endlessly unless you happen to step off the dotted line, at which point it’ll seamlessly transition to the (more intense) second minute. Implementing this should be very simple; we just ran out of time to test it. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Ὄνειρος ἀδελφός» (15:00) [DR13]
Attic Greek: “Dream Brother”
Romanized: «Óneiros adelphós»
Used on:
Principally inspired by Jeff Buckley’s “Dream Brother”. I tried to avoid repeating the same chord progression very much, which actually made writing a melody a challenge. Ironically, I intended this to be used on dream levels, but its only use on a dream level is on “Revenge of the Lysol Lady”, which will take players all of three minutes to play even if they read the terminals. Fortunately, we ultimately decided to make it a recurring theme in the Salinger plank, to the point where it’s arguably the main theme. No complaints there.
How did we refer to foreign-language titles? Since I’m the only sicko with a Greek keyboard installed, we usually referred to Greek titles by either their romanizations or their English translations:
- referenced by translations
- «Συνθήκη μετά Θεοῦ» was most often called “A Deal with God”
- «Ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς» was most often called “Rosy-Fingered Dawn”
- referenced by romanizations
- This was most often called “Oneiros adelphos”
- «Κοιμητήριον» was most often called “Koimeterion”
I suspect this was just a result of the filenames I uploaded them with – and while I definitely don’t have a clear enough memory to say for sure what my thought process was when I first uploaded this track, I’d almost wager money that a large part of my intention was to differentiate it from Buckley’s song. I’d altered the titles of the two former songs’ inspirations in some way; here, I simply translated the song’s inspiration directly.
Most songs that use the Latin alphabet were referred to by their actual titles, usually minus the diacritics; however, two unusually long titles were simplified. “Dissolvēre populum ac ēligere alium” was typically called “To Dissolve”, while “Leela / Covenant Dance / 𓈖𓐍𓅱𓏏𓀁 𓈖𓏏 𓉡𓁥” was usually called “Covenant Dance”, probably because it opens with the latter’s distinctive motif. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Fīnis fīnālis” (7:00) [DR13]
Latin: “The Final Frontier”
Effectively my tribute to Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack, which I wrote as a proof-of-concept for an Endless Sky soundtrack (hence the movement titles) that I ultimately haven’t had the emotional energy to continue working on. It’s probably the spaciest-sounding track I’ve ever written. –Aaron
«Πτῆσις ἐν διάστηματι» (0:00-2:40) [DR10]
Attic Greek: “Spaceflight”
Romanized: «Ptīsis en diástēmati»
«Ναυτῐκόν πολῑτείᾱς» (2:40-4:34) [DR13]
Attic Greek: “Republic Navy”
Romanized: «Nautĭkón polīteíās»
«Κρίσιμη μάχη» (4:34-7:00) [DR12]
Attic Greek: “Decisive Battle”
Romanized: «Krísimi mákhē»
BlueGreenSnake – “Intruders” (4:06) [DR7]
Used on: #11 “Core Wars”
Has a repeating riff with the Marathon 1 string ensemble, just like “Guardians”. Submitted this for my first of two assignments for the Electronic Music Producer unit in 2025. –BGS
Hank Morgan & Talashar – “Crossing” (9:36)
Used on: #44 “Sucking Cherries”
Originally a Metroid-inspired song. We initially wrote it for “Wading in Vitriol”; makes a great “final boss” track.
Talashar – “Protection Mandate” (8:29)
Used on: #64 “Drinking Vitriol”
Probably inspired by Bal-Sagoth, trying out more of a heroic theme. Didn’t really find a place for it in any of the main planks, so here it is on “Drinking Vitriol”. –Talashar
Used on: #35 “Hard Vacuum” (ending)
…but the ending did. –Talashar
BlueGreenSnake – “Ivory Moonlight” (8:02) [DR10]
Used on: #71 “iwannavacuum II”
Remember those Caillou Gets Grounded videos, specifically the ones where they use IVONA Ivy for Caillou’s text-to-speech? Keys/bass sample is of it saying “waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. Both this and “Drink Vacuum” were made with dynamic music in mind. –BGS
…and in a future release of the game, they’ll actually use it! We just ran out of time to implement it before we implemented feature freeze (mostly because I went on a two-day-long wild-goose chase trying to implement the scripting as a music plugin before learning that those aren’t actually a thing in Aleph One yet – that’s what I get for assuming that the documentation on GitHub reflects the current release). –Aaron
BlueGreenSnake – “Enforcer’s Funeral” (1:38) [DR10]
Used on: #17 “Tarboi”
Directly inspired by the Bog Biome from ARK: Survival Evolved Genesis Part 1. –BGS
BlueGreenSnake – “Aperture God (Heavy)” (3:56) [DR6]
Used on: #70 “Core Wars II”
This also originates from the same Ableton session as “Aperture God”. Never saw the light of day until July. Had a bit too much fun with the drum bus effect and the Maser samples, so had to turn it down a notch. –BGS
Aaron Freed – «Κοιμητήριον» (12:00) [DR12]
Attic Greek: “Graveyard”
Romanized: «Koimētḗrion»
Used on: #73 “With Utility Bills Like These…”
A sequel of sorts to «Malizia premeditata»; like its predecessor, it’s a nightmarish dark ambient track that only uses CS-80 and TR-808. Talashar compared this to Krzysztof Penderecki’s works, which I consider one of the most flattering compliments I’ve ever gotten on my music. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – 「저그 러쉬」 (5:12) [DR15]
Korean: “Zerg Rush”
Romanized: ｢Jeogeu leoswi｣
Used on: #76 “Attack of the Wheenies”
An intense drum and bass/industrial metal track that features some jerky rhythms and a guitar solo that’s deliberately meant to feel too fast for an actual human to play. I think I was aiming for somewhere between Nine Inch Nails’ “March of the Pigs” and Brad Fiedel’s Terminator soundtrack; this, like the main theme of the latter, is in 𝟏𝟑
𝟖. I think this may have actually been the first track we assigned; we immediately knew we wanted it to play on “Attack of the Wheenies”, and its placement there has never been in question. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Adronal” (10:30) [DR11]
Used on: #69 “The Descension Factor”
Used on: (…nice)
Effectively the third entry of my unplanned drone/dark ambient trilogy, although this one doesn’t contain the same drum pattern the other two do, so the only instrument found here is CS-80. I also didn’t insert as many sudden noises (read: musical jumpscares?), but it’s probably just as unsettling as the other two anyway. –Aaron
Talashar – “Hastur” (9:33) [DR9]
Used on:
My Rubicon version of “Thoth”. The main dramatic theme of the Tycho plank. –Talashar
BlueGreenSnake – “Old Atlantic” (6:42) [DR5]
Used on: #67 “Bob Is Everywhere!”
We were going to use this on “Not *This* Again…”, but I like it way more on here, and Talashar’s track is a much better fit for that level. –BGS
Hank Morgan & Talashar – “Break the Sword” (15:02) [DR9]
Used on: #74 “Break the Sword”
Roland couldn’t break you,
but I sure as hell can.
Aaron Freed, Hank Morgan, & Talashar – “Crossing (metal remix)” (9:40) [DR11]
Used on: #63 “Blasting Cherries”
Initially, we planned for Rubicon X’s three “Vidmaster’s Challenge” levels to have metal versions of their non-vidmaster counterparts. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to make two of them before our self-imposed deadline of its twentieth release anniversary. Hopefully, we’ll be able to add them in a future update. I’m also not sure this track actually wound up being more intense than the standard version after Talashar added some blistering guitar parts to the latter’s climax. Oh well.
One of the challenges of rearranging this and “Break the Sword” as metal songs is that many parts that sound fine on other instruments end up sounding mindlessly repetitive on electric guitar. As a result, I wound up rewriting significant parts of this song to add more variety and tension. I didn’t finish “Break the Sword” in time partly because it’s five minutes longer than this one (thus requiring more rewrites) and partly due to mental health issues, and I didn’t finish “Leela / Covenant Dance / 𓈖𓐍𓅱𓏏𓀁 𓈖𓏏 𓉡𓁥” in time because I wasn’t about to prioritize my song above others’.
I didn’t have as much time to consider how I wanted this to build up as I’d have liked and now think a few parts could be stronger; I’ll probably revise them in our inevitable 1.1 release, but I’m still happy with how this piece came together overall. My favorite moment, oddly enough, is the slide as the Ibanez guitar enters at the climax of the piece. It’s a perfect entrance. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Λᾱ́ζᾱρος ἐκ μηχανῆς» (5:00) [DR10]
Attic Greek: “Lazarus from the Machine”
Romanized: «Lā́zāros ek mekhanês»
We originally planned on having no music on “Lazarus ex machina”, but we decided it needed music towards the end of development, and since its layout is so convoluted that I couldn’t fade out the music as players fade out the climactic Ascension theme based on their location, I threw together this deliberately minimalistic drone track in about forty minutes (not an exaggeration).
Utlimately, though, I thought of an approach that would enable us to fade out the music without having to care about the player’s location, so we ultimately reused “Hastur” on this level. I wasn’t really bothered by that, since I wrote this so quickly. For the soundtrack, we still left it in the position of “Lazarus ex machina”, which would otherwise have no track to represent it.
The familiar Latin phrase Deus ex machina (God from the machine) is calqued from the far less familiar Greek phrase ἀπὸ μεχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós); as ex is a cognate of ἐκ (ek), I changed it accordingly. I also reordered the words to fit the more familiar Latin order; both orders are valid in both languages. (Languages with noun cases, like Latin and Greek, usually have more flexible word orders than languages without them, like English.)
The titular Lazarus was a man Jesus resurrected in the New Testament. I’ll spare explaining how this relates to the level, since many people reading this page may not have played Rubicon yet. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Quod fit, frāter?” (7:36) [DR13]
Latin: “What’s Going On, Brother?”
This was originally assigned to either “Molten Dihydrogen Oxide” or “Sea of Slime”, but a confusing spreadsheet design led to it slipping through the cracks until after we’d settled on the overall level assignments, so it (and a couple other tracks) wound up being left out. I still wound up with over two hours of my music in the game proper, so I don’t feel too bad about this. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Τίς συμβαίνει, ἀδελφέ?» (0:00-4:40) [DR13]
Attic Greek: “What’s Going On, Brother?”
Romanized: «Tís symbaínei, adelphé?»
A tribute to two Marvin Gaye songs that rank among the greatest protest songs of all time. This, of course, is a tribute to “What’s Going On”. (Its eponymous album’s second song is “What’s Happening Brother”, hence the title.) I think the buildup works quite effectively. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Κῡ́ριε ἐλέησον μοι (Ἡ οἰ̃κολογία)» (4:40–7:36) [DR13]
Attic Greek: “Oh Lord, Have Mercy on Me (The Ecology)”
Romanized: «Kȳ́rie eléēson moi (He oîkología)»
The second movement, inspired by “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, also directly quotes Nobuo Uematsu’s “Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII”, which uses the same chord progression as ““Mercy Mercy Me”. Given Final Fantasy VII’s deep-rooted ecological themes, I’m convinced that this was a deliberate tribute to the most famous ecological protest song of all time. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – «Λιτανείᾱ κατά φόβου» (6:20) [DR11]
Attic Greek: “Litany Against Fear”
Romanized: «Litaneíā katá phóbou»
I wrote this after seeing Denis Villeneuve’s masterful Dune: Part Two, hence the title; it’s heavily inspired by Hans Zimmer’s scores for both films. It’s written in Maqam Hijaz, a scale commonly used in Arabic, Indian, and Greek music; Greek is the one language of those three cultures I actually understand at all, so I used a Greek translation for its title. We wound up not using it because it sounded like it belonged in a desert level, and Rubicon doesn’t really have any of those.
For the record, this title in Standard Arabic would be «تَرْتِيلَة ضِدَّ خَوْفٍ» (Tartīla ḍidda ḵawfin; a friend who’s a native Palestinian Arabic speaker has confirmed that this is correct), while in Sanskrit, I believe it would be something like «सामवेदः अभि भयम्» (Sāmavédaḥ abhí bhayám, lit. “Samaveda against fear”) or «सूक्तम् अभि भयम्» (Sūktám abhí bhayám, lit. “Vedic hymn against fear”). –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “The Pipeline, Filling In Time” (13:00) [DR15]
One of several songs whose title (taken from Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”) has nothing to do with it – it was literally the only thing I could think of when I saved the project file, and I never could think of anything better. Its biggest inspiration is probably Ennio Morricone, hence the trumpet solo. It was a little too quirky to fit in as a main story level, but we all liked it too much to leave it off the soundtrack entirely, so here it is. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Omnēs viae Sōlem dūcunt” (20:15) [DR14]
Latin: “All Roads Lead to Sol”
The one bonus track that I never considered submitting for Rubicon – its title refers to the one and only level I ever considered placing it on. I wrote it for an unfinished Marathon 2 soundtrack plugin that I still hope to finish one of these days. I submitted it as a bonus track for several reasons:
- It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.
- Its lyrics refer to Rubicon’s events. (I believe this is the entire album’s only song with lyrics.)
- It’s similar enough to my Rubicon pieces that I felt it would fit in with them.
- I felt none of the other bonus tracks were climactic enough for a soundtrack of this magnitude.
I wasn’t planning to be the only person with bonus tracks; I was under the distinct impression the other composers were going to submit some, too, but they never did. Oh well. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Celeritās Deī tibi, imperãtor fusce” (0:00–7:06) [DR15]
Latin: “God’s Speed to You, Black Emperor”
So named because it’s a pastiche of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, one of my favorite musical acts of all time. (Could you not tell from all the crescendi in my music?) Specifically, it’s inspired by “Piss Crowns Are Trebled” (no, I have no idea what that title means, either). I also threw in references to the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” for two reasons:
- It uses a similar tempo and time signature.
- No one ever made a song worse by ripping off the Fab Four.
–Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Quattuor pūnctum sex miliardum annōrum” (7:06–12:31) [DR14]
Latin: “Four Point Six Billion Years”
This began life as a pastiche of the opening movement of Nightwish’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”, and it still has some pretty strong harmonic similarities, although I went in a somewhat jazzier direction. When I noticed I’d written this movement in the same key as the previous one (G minor) and built it entirely around a crescendo, I felt there was nothing for it but to combine them into one track. I’m quite cleaed with how the transition worked. The title refers to the age of the Earth; the opening movement of Nightwish’s track is likewise called “4.6”. –Aaron
Aaron Freed – “Vīdī rēs vōs hominēs nē crēderētis” (12:31–20:15) [DR12]
Latin: “I’ve Seen Things You People Wouldn’t Believe”
Like many of my best pieces, this one basically wrote itself. I couldn’t tell you what inspired my chord changes or melody, besides that, as usual, I kept asking what Johann Sebastian Bach would’ve written. I might’ve gotten 10% of the answers right, which is better than usual.
I’d planned the climactic Latin choral section from the outset, but after writing two stanzas, I felt the piece still needed a grand finale, so I added a guitar solo and a third stanza (with an entirely different melody and chord progression) in Attic Greek. I end with a reprisal of the first two stanzas’ chord progression and a plagal cadence.
The movement title and first four lines refer to Roy Batty’s final soliloquy in Blade Runner; the remaining portion refers to events of Bungie’s trilogy, Rubicon, and Eternal. The Greek stanza mostly refers to the “I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh” terminal in “Kill Your Television”; it also alludes to the Deep Space Nine episode “In the Pale Moonlight” and Ren’s “Hi Ren” («νῷν αἰωνίου χοροῦ», meaning “our eternal dance”). –Aaron
| Latin Lyrics (Lyrica latīna) | English Translation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
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Viāvī omnis circum astra Vidē nāvēs fervēntes in Ōrīōne Trabēs C ad portam Tannhäuser Mōmenta erunt perdita in tempore Sed post omnia quae vidēbam Ac post omnia quae faciēbam Prīmae vēritātēs quās cōnstābunt Omnēs viae ad sōlem dūcunt |
I’ve voyaged all around the stars I’ve seen ships on fire in Orion C-beams by the Tannhäuser Gate Moments will be lost in time But after everything I’ve seen And after everything I’ve done Is the first, most constant of truths: All roads lead to the Sun |
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Post īnsidiās Strauss et MIDA Ac rampans ignis ferrum cūdit Nōs vīcerimus mangōnibus Ac ballō Ūnā Obscurā Ac vīsimus ad astrum vagum Sciō nec quamdiū viābō nec quem fiām Sōlum dēstinātiōnem meam Omnēs viae retro sōlem eunt |
After Strauss and MIDA’s machinations After rampant fire forged a sword After we’ve won the war with the slavers After I’ve danced with the Dark One And after we’ve visited the rogue star I know not how long I’ll travel nor who I’ll become I know only my destination All roads lead back to the Sun |
| Attic Greek (Ἀττική Ἑλληνική) | Romanized (Rhōmaïsméni) | English Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Ἀπαντήσομεν ἐν ὠχρῷ σελήνόφωτί Ἐν κήπῳ εἰς γένεσιν κόσμου Μαχώμεθα ἤ ἔρωτευώμεθα Ἀπό νῷν αἰωνίου χοροῦ Καί εἰ πάλιν συμβιβάσοιμεν Πάντες τύραννοι ὀφείλωσι δείσειν Δικαιοσύνη καί ἰσότης νῑκήσουσιν Πᾶσαι ὁδοί ἡγέονται εἰς ἥλιον! |
Apantḗsomen en ōkhrôi selḗnófōtí En kḗpōi eis génesin kósmou Makhṓmetha ḗ érōteuṓmetha Apó nôin aiōníou khorôu Kaí ei pálin symbibásoimen Pántes týrannoi ofeílōsi deídein Dikaiosúnē kaí isṓtes nīkḗsousin Pâsai hodoí hēgéontai eis hḗlion! |
We’ll meet in the pale moonlight In the garden at the world’s birth We may fight, we may fall in love From our eternal dance And if once more we should unite All tyrants should beware Justice and equality will prevail All roads lead to the Sun! |
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| Vīdī rēs vōs hominēs nē crēderētis
(I’ve Seen Things You People Wouldn’t Believe) |
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|---|---|
| Lyrica latīna (versuum seriēs prīma) Latin lyrics (first stanza) |
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Viāvī omnis circum astra Vidē nāvēs fervēntes in Ōrīōne Trabēs C ad portam Tannhäuser Mōmenta erunt perdita in tempore Sed post omnia quae vidēbam Ac post omnia quae faciēbam Prīmae vēritātēs quās cōnstābunt Omnēs viae ad sōlem dūcunt |
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| Trānslātiō anglica (versuum seriēs prīma) English translation (first stanza) |
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I’ve voyaged all around the stars I’ve seen ships on fire in Orion C-beams by the Tannhäuser Gate Moments will be lost in time But after everything I’ve seen And after everything I’ve done Is the first, most constant of truths: All roads lead to the Sun |
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| Lyrica latīna (versuum seriēs secunda) Latin lyrics (second stanza) |
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Post īnsidiās Strauss et MIDA Ac rampans ignis ferrum cūdit Nōs vīcerimus mangōnibus Ac ballō Ūnā Obscurā Ac vīsimus ad astrum vagum Sciō nec quamdiū viābō nec quem fiām Sōlum dēstinātiōnem meam Omnēs viae retro sōlem eunt |
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| Tran̄slātiō anglica (versuum seriēs secunda) English translation (second stanza) |
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After Strauss and MIDA’s machinations After rampant fire forged a sword After we’ve won the war with the slavers After I’ve danced with the Dark One And after we’ve visited the rogue star I know not how long I’ll travel nor who I’ll become I know only my destination All roads lead back to the Sun |
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| Ἀττικός Ἑλληνική (τρῐ́τη στροφή) Attĭkós Hellēnĭkḗ (trĭ́tē strophḗ) Attic Greek (third stanza) |
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Ἀπαντήσομεν ἐν ὠχρῷ σελήνόφωτί Ἐν κήπῳ εἰς γένεσιν κόσμου Μαχώμεθα ἤ ἔρωτευώμεθα Ἀπό νῷν αἰωνίου χοροῦ Καί εἰ πάλιν συμβιβάσοιμεν Πάντες τύραννοι ὀφείλωσι δείσειν Δικαιοσύνη καί ἰσότης νῑκήσουσιν Πᾶσαι ὁδοί ἡγέονται εἰς ἥλιον! |
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| Ῥωμᾰῐ̈σμένη (τρῐ́τη στροφή) Rhṓmăĭ̈sméni (trĭ́tē strophḗ) Romanized (third stanza) | |
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Apantḗsomen en ōkhrôi selḗnófōtí En kḗpōi eis génesin kósmou Makhṓmetha ḗ érōteuṓmetha Apó nôin aiōníou khorôu Kaí ei pálin symbibásoimen Pántes týrannoi ofeílōsi deídein Dikaiosúnē kaí isṓtes nīkḗsousin Pâsai hodoí hēgéontai eis hḗlion! |
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| Μετάφρασις (τρῐ́τη στροφή) Metáphrasis (trĭ́tē strophḗ) Translation (third stanza) |
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We’ll meet in the pale moonlight In the garden at the world’s birth We may fight, we may fall in love From our eternal dance And if once more we should unite All tyrants should beware Justice and equality will prevail All roads lead to the Sun! |
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