Sierra; 2000
Rating: 8.6

Video game composers get no respect. Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu have been wowing gamers for decades, but it wasn’t until Pitchfork favorite Amon Tobin composed for Chaos Theory: Splinter Cell 3 that anybody noticed a video game soundtrack. They (and everybody else) missed a masterpiece when they overlooked Paul Ruskay’s ambient soundtrack for 2000’s Homeworld.

Contrary to scientific fact, there is sound in outer space, and this is what it sounds like. Distant pulsars hum, black holes moan, sailing ships shimmer, and the fabric of spacetime sighs under the invisible strain of dark energy. And every so often, the cadence of war can be heard.

Homeworld is a battle strategy game set in the vast emptiness of deep space, which Paul Ruskay’s eerie, otherworldly soundtrack fits perfectly. It opens with a choral version of Samuel Barber’s classic ‘Adagio for Strings’ - a thousand Kharakid souls calling desperately to their distant Homeworld. Most of the tracks are quiet ambient pieces that sound remarkably like Radiohead’s ‘Treefingers’, ranging from tranquil (’Garden View’) to ominous (’Diamond Shoals & Galactic Core’) to downright creepy (’Ship Graveyard’). But Ruskay really shows off his talent on the ‘battle’ tracks: ‘Imperial Battle Music’, ‘Swarmer Battle Music’, and ‘Turanic Raiders Battle Music’. Tribal drums and an insectoid whine join the uneasy mechanical ambiance with a texture that suggests the biomechanical future sure to come. In fact, like much ambient music the soundtrack is even more a triumph of careful sound design than musical composition. Ask yourself, “What does outer space sound like?” before hearing Homeworld and you’ll get a sense of what an impossible feat this soundtrack achieves.

Video game music has come a long way from its bleep-bloop beginnings. Music fans and critics who ignore this blossoming field miss a few of each year’s best releases. This is one of them.