Petri Alanko's original soundtrack for the video game Control: Resonant arrives on streaming services, bringing the Finnish composer's haunting score for the sci-fi thriller to a wider audience. The album is led by the single «The One I Once Knew,» a collaboration with vocalist Amelia Jones that Alanko describes as a track about searching for a lost part of oneself.
The song had an unusually long gestation. Alanko originally wrote it while working on Alan Wake 2, but the team decided against including it because its emotional impact felt too strong for that project. «For a short while I even thought it could fit in with that — but the overall consensus was it had a bit too great an emotional impact, and we decided to leave it resting,» Alanko said. The lyrics were later refined, and Jones's vocals completed the piece. «It's a track about searching for something or someone that feels almost like a lost half of you, not knowing where to find it, but your heart will show the way,» he explained. «It bears a very significant meaning to me. It was a long time in the making, but I feel it is now where it should be.»
Control: Resonant is a sequel to the 2019 sci-fi thriller Control, following Dylan Faden, the brother of original protagonist Jesse, through a warped Manhattan on the brink of paranatural annihilation. An official description of the game invites players to «unleash the extraordinary powers of Dylan Faden as he fights for his humanity and our survival against a reality-bending cosmic threat.» The game launched last week, with the soundtrack following close behind.
Alanko is a familiar name to fans of developer Remedy Entertainment, having scored the original Control as well as the Alan Wake series. He said the scope of Control: Resonant exceeded anything he had previously worked on. «It was incredibly intense trying to hold back tears, when the twists and turns were thrown at you, and emotionally Control: Resonant went deeper under my skin than I expected,» he said. «Under the action, it is a story about devotion, dedication and determination.»
The soundtrack's release is accompanied by an eclectic mixtape of original songs assembled by the game's creative team and dedicated to Zoe De Vera, Dylan's handler at the Federal Bureau of Control. The mixtape spans rock, hip-hop, and pop, reflecting the game's thematic tensions. «A central theme in Control: Resonant is the pursuit of humanity in a strange, esoteric world,» said creative director Mikael Kasurinen. «With that context, I wanted to explore the tension between surrealism and something deeply familiar.»
Alanko noted that «The One I Once Knew» also served as source material for other pieces on the album, giving the soundtrack a cohesive emotional thread. The full record is available now on major streaming platforms.