Music
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| The original promotional CD. | |
Oni's soundtrack is a mix of symphonic/cinematic, techno/dance, and atmospheric/ambient pieces. As for the question of who composed it, these are the names credited on the back of the CD, but see below for an in-depth investigation:
- Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori - TotalAudio
- Paul Sebastien - Power of Seven
TotalAudio
TotalAudio is a duo consisting of Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, also referred to as O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. This was an outside company contracted by Bungie to score their games. When it comes to Oni, however, Salvatori may not actually have composed anything. O'Donnell states in this interview that he personally composed the half of the soundtrack which Power of Seven did not. In the same interview, Salvatori is referred to as a producer and engineer working with Marty, not a composer, but the interview was three years after Oni released. O'Donnell specifically seemed to take credit for "Oni Anime" and "Farewell" on his mp3.com artist page. When O'Donnell released the Oni soundtrack on Bandcamp for a short while, the sheet music for "Hurry" was included as an extra, credited to O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. but not any specific person.
Power of Seven
The name echoes Bungie's "cult" of the number 7, but Power of Seven was an independent digital music content publisher founded in Minnesota and headed by Paul Sebastien. Bungie fans also know them for producing the opening themes to Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity.
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. They became defunct in 2011. (The Californian company which currently creates meditation audio programs under the name Headspace is unrelated.)
The "trio"
Determining which people at Power of Seven actually worked on Oni's soundtrack is more difficult. This article from spring 2000 calls the group a trio consisting of "NVerse", Brian Salter and Kim Cascone.
Cascone is a famous experimental electronic composer, and his work is wayyy more avant-garde than what you'd expect to hear in a game, though he did score Obsidian, a 1997 surrealist puzzle game. Cascone briefly mentioned that he was working on "sound design for a Japanese anime game" at the end of this 1998 interview, which he confirmed by email in 2022 to have been Oni, however he referred to his contributions as "spec work" and didn't think that his "sound design" was used in the final game.
Brian Salter, who has composed for other games, also released his own album called "Missing Scenes (1997-2005)" under the artist name Plektric in 2005. The following tracks are very clearly alternate versions of tracks from Oni: 1. Furies (Konoko Chase), 4. Two New Villains (Whirled Piece), 5. Ellipse (Oni Fever, aka Strikers), 6. Mr. Bailout (East Wind), and 7. Drop Zone (Pursuit).
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. Was he the mysterious "NVerse"? In any case, about nine days before the above press release naming the trio of "NVerse, Brian Salter and Kim Cascone", Sebastien stated in an interview (now lost) that Power of Seven would also be making "atmospheric ambient" tracks for the game.
Tentative attribution
Based on the style of each composer and their above statements and released music, we can confidently credit some tracks and speculate on the rest:
| # | Name | Composer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oni Anime | O'Donnell |
| 2 | Trailer | Sebastien? |
| 3 | East Wind | Salter |
| 4 | Searching | ??? |
| 5 | Pursuit | Salter |
| 6 | Loss | O'Donnell |
| 7 | Hurry | O'Donnell |
| 8 | Fight | ??? |
| 9 | Ambient Suite | Cascone or Salter? |
| 10 | Internal Space | ??? |
| 11 | Farewell | O'Donnell |
| 12 | Konoko Chase | Salter |
| 13 | Oni Fever | Salter |
| 14 | The Hunt | ??? |
| 15 | Whirled Piece | Salter |
| 16 | End Titles | O'Donnell |
As for bonus track "No One Left To Trust", it's difficult to guess who made it, but it bears stylistic resemblance to "Trailer" and also to other work by Sebastien from that time period. When it comes to ambient tracks used in-game which were not in the "Ambient Suite" track on the CD, we know that some are by O'Donnell because they are reused from Myth I/II (see Myth subpage link at top of page).