Music
File:OST cover.png The art used for Marty O'Donnell's Bandcamp re-release of the OST (no longer online). |
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Musicians
- Marty O'Donnell
- Michael Salvatori*
- Power of Seven
*Salvatori may not actually have composed for Oni, as O'Donnell states in this interview that he personally composed the half of the soundtrack which Power of Seven did not.
Power of Seven
The name echoes Bungie's "cult" of the number 7 and its powers (343, 2401), but Power of Seven was an independent digital music content publisher founded in Minnesota and headed by Paul Sebastien. Bungie fans know them for producing the opening themes to Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity and producing half of the soundtrack of Oni.
Paul Sebastien was also a founder of the techno band Psykosonik; over the course of the band's existence (1992–1997), four of their electronic dance songs charted in the Billboard Top 40. In 1996, Power of Seven was acquired by audio company Headspace, Inc. and the studio was relocated to Headspace's HQ in San Mateo, California. In 1999, Headspace renamed themselves Beatnik, Inc. Beatnik, Inc. became defunct in 2011. (The Californian company which currently creates meditation audio programs under the name Headspace is unrelated.)
Determining which people at Power of Seven actually worked on Oni's soundtrack is difficult. This article calls the group a "trio" consisting of "NVerse" (real name unknown), Brian Salter and famous experimental electronic composer Kim Cascone. Cascone's work is wayyy more experimental than what you'd expect to hear in a game, though he did score the surrealist puzzle game Obsidian (1997). Amazingly, Cascone briefly mentions that he is working on "sound design for a Japanese anime game" at the end of this 1998 interview, which must be referring to Oni. It is unknown whether Paul Sebastien himself contributed to the soundtrack, as he may have been busy in his role as Director of Production at Headspace. But who was the mysterious "NVerse"?