65daysofstatic’s New Album Explores AI and Humanity
▼ Summary
– 65daysofstatic returned to create new music for No Man’s Sky nine years after the game’s launch, marking a rare collaboration in gaming history.
– The band and audio director Paul Weir transformed abstract soundscapes into a human-crafted 32-track album called Journeys, intentionally moving away from infinite procedural generation.
– Journeys represents a shift from the original soundtrack’s optimistic space exploration themes to a more eerie and mysterious tone reflecting the game’s evolution.
– The creators strongly oppose AI-generated music, emphasizing that their work uses algorithms only to rearrange handcrafted music rather than create it.
– This project highlights music as human dialogue and social connection, asserting that generative AI misses the fundamental meaning of art.
Few bands get the opportunity to revisit and rescore a video game nearly a decade after its debut, but 65daysofstatic isn’t your typical group, and No Man’s Sky is far from an ordinary game. When the procedurally generated sci-fi epic launched in 2016, its promise of an infinite universe captivated players and critics alike. Now, almost ten years later, the Sheffield-based post-rock quartet has returned with Journeys, a new four-LP soundtrack that responds to a world where generative technology has shifted from futuristic promise to cultural battleground.
Paul Wolinski of 65daysofstatic doesn’t mince words when discussing the current state of generative tech. “It’s just capitalism, isn’t it?” he observes. “It’s ruining everything. You have all these CEOs who don’t grasp the distinction between art and content.” This sentiment fuels Journeys, a defiantly human-centered album created in collaboration with Hello Games audio director Paul Weir. Together, they transformed a collection of abstract, unreleased soundscapes, originally designed to be endlessly rearranged by the game’s algorithm, into 32 fully realized, intentional compositions.
Wolinski explains, “For this record, we focused intently on turning that infinite potential into something bespoke and artisan.” Where the original Music for an Infinite Universe soundtrack mirrored the thrill of space exploration with driving percussion and soaring guitars, Journeys evokes the unease of landing on an uncharted planet. Its atmosphere is eerier, its tone more ambiguous, reflecting both the game’s own evolution and a broader cultural shift.
“I initially thought it would involve remixing our older material,” Wolinski admits, “but many of the soundscapes didn’t offer a clear starting point for a song. The process turned out to be far more mysterious and challenging.” Fortunately, the band had Weir’s expertise to lean on. A sound designer as much as a composer, Weir brought a layer of abstraction and experimentation to the project. “I didn’t want to sound like a knockoff 65daysofstatic,” he notes. “So I introduced a lot of strange, otherworldly noises from my synth.”
The resulting collaboration merges 65daysofstatic’s progressive rock influences with Weir’s ambient, synth-driven soundscapes, creating a listening experience that at times recalls the minimalist compositions of Philip Glass. This artistic growth mirrors No Man’s Sky’s own journey from a controversial launch to a beloved, ever-expanding universe. Weir reflects on their 14-year involvement with the game: “It’s a funny old relationship. We often joke, ‘Alright, enough already, time to move on!’ But we’re also genuinely delighted by its lasting success.”
The impact of No Man’s Sky on 65daysofstatic’s career is undeniable. Of the band’s most-streamed tracks on Spotify, nine originate from the game. These pieces have become staples of their live performances, transcending their role as background music to stand as independent artistic statements. “To us, this has always been a 65daysofstatic record as much as a No Man’s Sky score,” Wolinski emphasizes. “Being connected to something with such a profound cultural footprint is a wonderful feeling.”
With Journeys now released, could a live performance featuring both the band and Weir be in the cards? Weir hints, “We wouldn’t rule out potentially doing something for the 10th anniversary in some form.”
Just as No Man’s Sky has transformed over the years, so has the cultural conversation around technology. Wolinski recalls how the game’s use of procedural generation sparked a creative obsession, leading the band to explore live-coded audio-visual performances and even inspiring his own academic research. “No Man’s Sky definitely sent us off in a new artistic direction,” he says. “And I’m really grateful it did.”
But in 2025, Wolinski sees generative technology tarnished by what he calls “prompt-based dirge.” He draws a sharp line between the thoughtful systems in No Man’s Sky and the flood of AI-generated content saturating platforms today. “We returned to this project with strong feelings against the association between generative systems and what people now call ‘AI slop.’ It’s all about churning out disposable content just to capture a few seconds of attention. The whole situation feels miserable.”
Weir clarifies the crucial distinction in their approach: “With No Man’s Sky, every piece of music is handcrafted by us. The computer doesn’t create, it rearranges. That’s an entirely different process from AI generating music from scratch.” In an era where artists must defend their work from AI impersonators, both creators felt a responsibility to champion human-led composition.
Ultimately, Journeys represents more than a collection of songs, it’s a statement on the irreplaceable role of human connection in art. “Does it matter if computers can make music? Not really, because that isn’t what music is about,” Wolinski asserts. “The physical production of sound is just one small part of the equation. What gives music meaning are the social relationships around it, the unspoken dialogue between people, even if they never meet. That’s what art is. And that’s exactly what generative AI fails to understand.”
Journeys is available now across all major streaming services and as a vinyl release.
(Source: The Verge)
