Bastion is extraordinary for being the only video game soundtrack I put on in the background and consistently get non-gamers coming up to me head a-bobbin' saying 'What IS this?'
Bastion's soundtrack was composed by Darren Korb, audio lead for Supergiant Games and multi-band independent musician since he was a teenager. The music is a dazzling mixture of soundscapes, genres and styles. Banjos twang and grind over digital crashes and smashes while ghostly harmonicas trade blows with distorted slide sitar. And that's ONE song out of twenty two.
The result is a fantastic soundtrack which instantly crafts a narrative on top of whatever you're doing. For example, I listen to Bastion a lot when cooking. Suddenly those draining plum tomatoes are no longer a lumpen mass of vegetables- they're prairie critters I'm having to slaughter to survive in the brutal wastes of the west.
I don't know what prairie critters are. I don't know what the brutal wastes of the west would be. But I know EXACTLY what they are when I'm in the moment with Bastion's soundtrack.
The East meets West meets Folk meets Industrial meets Classical meets Baroque mixture of the album ensures you never hit a dull moment. Cellos march you to war before delivering you into the hands of water logged harps. Chiming twelve strings tango with funked up dobros. Six shooter pistols clink and clank against rumbling electro bass. Korb is one hell of a musical magpie, and he knows how to construct an absolutely towering nest out of his bits and bobs.
The whole album is available to stream from Supergiant Games Bandcamp page and can be yours for ten bucks. It's also up on Spotify and YouTube. You have no excuses. Allow Bastion's transcendent soundtrack to craft some new adventures in your life.
