It’s rare for a band to return to score the same game nearly a decade after its initial release, but then again, few games can compare to No Man’s Sky. First showcased on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and during flashy E3 events, No Man’s Sky was set up as the future of gaming back in 2016, thanks to its impressive procedural generation that crafted an expansive sci-fi universe. Fast forward to today, and as the post-rock band 65daysofstatic comes back to re-score this ever-evolving game, the allure of generated content feels less like a futuristic dream and more like a cautionary tale amid the flood of AI-generated art.
“That’s just capitalism at work, isn’t it?” Paul Wolinski from 65daysofstatic points out. “It’s ruining everything. It’s all these CEOs who don’t see the difference between art and content.” That’s where their new soundtrack, Journeys, comes in—a bold statement against the rise of music made by machines. Working closely with Hello Games’ audio director, Paul Weir, Wolinski has spent the past year transforming abstract, previously unreleased soundscapes into fully realized tracks. Originally meant to be endlessly shuffled around by No Man’s Sky’s algorithm, the two collaborated to reshape these alien sounds into something distinctly human. The result is a massive 32-track, four-LP album that fuses reimagined soundscapes from 65daysofstatic with Weir’s original compositions.
“For this record, we aimed to turn all that infinite stuff into something more intentional—something custom-made and artisan,” says Wolinski. While the original soundtrack, Music for an Infinite Universe, featured driving drums and expansive guitar work that captured the excitement of space exploration, Journeys leans into a more haunting vibe, echoing the unsettling feeling of landing on an alien world. The initial optimism of the score has shifted to a more enigmatic ambiance.
“When we kicked off this project, I thought I’d just be remixing our previous work,” Wolinski recalls, “but most of the soundscapes didn’t offer a clear path for a traditional song… It turned out to be more challenging and mysterious.” Fortunately, 65daysofstatic had Weir’s expertise in creating ethereal sounds.
“We were much more focused on making all that infinite material something intentional,” he explains. As the band explored procedural generation in their live performances, No Man’s Sky continued to grow, necessitating music that matched its evolution. “I didn’t want to sound like a fake 65daysofstatic, you know?” Weir explains while tinkering with his synth. “I’m as much a sound designer as I am a composer, which brought a lot of abstraction into this music. There are plenty of unusual sounds!”
With 65daysofstatic’s progressive rock elements blending seamlessly with Weir’s atmospheric synth work, the final result resembles a Philip Glass score more than a traditional post-rock album. This evolution aligns perfectly with No Man’s Sky’s transformation from a shaky launch to a sprawling, beloved sci-fi epic. “It’s a strange relationship,” Weir reflects, having worked on this project for 14 years. “We often find ourselves saying, ‘Alright, enough already, let’s move on!’ while also feeling thrilled by its continued success.”
Hello Games isn’t the only team benefiting from No Man’s Sky’s achievements. Among 65daysofstatic’s most-streamed tracks on Spotify, nine were crafted for the game. Songs from No Man’s Sky have become key parts of 65daysofstatic’s live performances, living on outside the game in a way that soundtracks typically don’t. “To us, it’s always felt like a 65daysofstatic album as much as a No Man’s Sky score,” says Wolinski. “We’ve been fortunate to be attached to some significant projects in our careers, but being part of something with such a massive cultural impact is incredibly rewarding.”
Now that Journeys is out, could 65daysofstatic and Weir perform this music together live? “We wouldn’t rule out the possibility of doing something for the 10th anniversary,” teases Weir.
As No Man’s Sky has evolved, so too has society’s relationship with technology since 2016. When Wolinski first discovered the potential of using procedural generation in music, it sparked an obsession that led to live-coded audio/visual shows, 2019’s algorithmic album Decomposition Theory, and even a PhD. “No Man’s Sky definitely took us in a new direction,” he smiles. “And I’m really glad it did.”
“Who cares if computers can make music? That’s not what music is,” declares Wolinski. However, by 2025, he argues that generative technology has been tainted by mediocre, prompt-driven content. “We returned to this project strongly opposed to the negative associations tied to generative systems and artificial intelligence,” he notes. “There’s a significant difference between that and No Man’s Sky’s generative systems… Nowadays, it feels like it’s all about producing more content to keep people’s attention for mere seconds. It’s disheartening.”
“With No Man’s Sky, it’s all our music; everything is handcrafted. The computer doesn’t create anything—its role is to rearrange what we’ve made,” Weir explains. Despite the distinct differences between an algorithm that rearranges human-created music and one that merely generates it, with hardworking human artists facing impersonation by AI, the two felt compelled to resist the rise of machine-made music.
In essence, Journeys serves as more than just an album; it’s a declaration from humans standing against the encroachment of artificial musical creators. “Who cares if computers can make music? That’s not the essence of music,” Wolinski asserts. “The mechanics of producing sound waves are just a small part of what gives music its meaning. It’s all about the relationships surrounding it, the human dialogues that happen between people, even if they never meet. That’s the essence of art, and that’s where generative AI completely misses the mark.”
Journeys is now available on streaming platforms and vinyl.
