Google says that 80% of all the animals on Earth are insects, so it’s not that hard to imagine a world they dominated. They could be human sized as well (am I right, Franz Kafka?). There’s a very specific music coming from the grass and capturing that band with human instruments is a different pair of shoes. In the game we follow Annika Stonefly, a young and sometimes too optimistic inventor. She explores the insects’ world, going deep among strange fauna and flora. But she takes technology to nature: she travels in a robot mech.
He’s a plant lover and finds great inspiration in nature.
The composer Natureboy Flako is not in a rush following her. He lets the game’s organic world surround him when he explores it in his mechanical rig with his music turned on. He captures this feeling by placing electronic music in the centre and putting nature-like sounds to the suburbs so they are always “somewhere around”.
For Natureboy Flako it’s the first video game soundtrack, but not the first album driven by a mix of nature and electronic music. Actually, it’s kind of his stample. He’s a plant lover and finds great inspiration in nature. Indeed, walking through his whole discography is like walking through a forest where everything seems to be homogeneous, but in fact there are dozens of species living there. I bet he felt at home making Stonefly’s soundtrack because it easily finds its place among the rest of his albums.
It’s sophisticated synth music with amazing ambient textures, but Natureboy Flako also uses real instruments, humanising the whole trip across the insect’s land. He plays the guitar (Afternoon On The Clearing), bass (After The Storm) or drums. However, drums are not a must-have for him here.
Very often the rhythm is simply held by other instruments until the drums come in (Thousand Year Old Oak). And when they appear, usually they don’t only set the rhythm, but also add another layer of texture (Through The Old Forest). Sometimes Natureboy Flako visits alternative indie music (Dreamed Excursion, House Of Healing). The other time he goes for a kind of synthwave (New Infinity) or minimalist ambient based on chirping crickets (Peaceful Place).
Everything is wobbly and perfect in its imperfections. It’s like the sound of insect wings – dreamlike, quavery and melancholic, yet thick and loud. The little creatures seem fragile to us, but in their scale, they can be strong and adamant. That’s what this album sounds like to me.
