Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2
John Also Bennett taps into the stasis and relief of video game save rooms on this tranquillising 90 minute anthology, throwing Koji Kondo and Michiru Oshima references (and a charmingly squiggly cover of Arvo Pärt's 'Spiegel im Spiegel') into an undulating suite of glassy, endlessly evolving Fourth World fantasies.
JAB was working from a remote barn in the fog-swept Marin Headlands when he came up with the concept for 'Music for Save Rooms'. He'd been encouraged by his friend and collaborator Peter Burr to follow an idea, inspired by the temporary safety of video game save rooms, of writing endless, looping compositions that offered the notion of stasis without technically repeating themselves. His initial sessions delivered 11 compositions that toyed with phasing techniques, liquifying field recordings with analgesic pads and nostalgic themes. These were eventually followed up with a more deliberate and progressive follow-up 'Music For Save Rooms 2’, with both volumes compiled for this double album.
Hearing the two albums side-by-side is a window into Bennett's creative process. From the gusty alto flute desolation of 'Still Inside the Deku Tree', the first volume conveys Bennett's influences, establishing the project's foundations. He draws from a fertile creative landscape - we're thinking Michiru Oshima's fantastic 'Ico' soundtrack and the beloved themes from Capcom's 'Resident Evil' series, just for starters. Alongside that stunning Bass Bansuri Flute opener, Save Room 6' is the stand-out, like some Selected Ambient Works Vol II nugget cast through almost ten minutes of hoisted atmospherics (is that the 'Dark Souls' bonfire we hear in the distance?) and pads that skew outside the obvious. Given time to ripen his concept, Bennett sets himself up with a Yamaha DX7, Roland D-50 and Roland JV1080 for Vol 2, focusing his narrative, shortening the tracks and emphasising negative space.
The concept widens substantially on 'Power Plant', leaning into the kind of reverberating '80s movie soundtrack aesthetics that contemporaneous games systems didn't have the power to process. It’s the moment Bennett's save rooms cross over most manifestly with Jon Hassell's Fourth World aesthetic. Perhaps Hassell's liminal, ambient-pilled world music actually inspired some of those OG save room themes in the first place, but hearing the correlation in this context makes complete sense, and Bennett's attention to detail and engineering skill brings out the richness of his synths. Using a tuning system developed by Xenakis on 'Glass Castle', JAB settles eerie, dissonant piano motifs against unmistakable FM pads and glass harmonica drones, and on 'Computer Terminal' follows the xenharmonic through-line, queering restorative warbles into psychoactive textures.
Mind-nourishing and atmospherically luxe, 'Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2' is a fine example of how video game music can cross brazenly into the avant-garde.
View more
2CD Set, edition of 150, inc a download of the album dropped to your account. 90 minutes, recorded between 2018 and 2023 in Marin County, California, Brooklyn, New York, Clatskanie, Oregon, and Brussels. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, Design by Jeroen Wille
Out of Stock
John Also Bennett taps into the stasis and relief of video game save rooms on this tranquillising 90 minute anthology, throwing Koji Kondo and Michiru Oshima references (and a charmingly squiggly cover of Arvo Pärt's 'Spiegel im Spiegel') into an undulating suite of glassy, endlessly evolving Fourth World fantasies.
JAB was working from a remote barn in the fog-swept Marin Headlands when he came up with the concept for 'Music for Save Rooms'. He'd been encouraged by his friend and collaborator Peter Burr to follow an idea, inspired by the temporary safety of video game save rooms, of writing endless, looping compositions that offered the notion of stasis without technically repeating themselves. His initial sessions delivered 11 compositions that toyed with phasing techniques, liquifying field recordings with analgesic pads and nostalgic themes. These were eventually followed up with a more deliberate and progressive follow-up 'Music For Save Rooms 2’, with both volumes compiled for this double album.
Hearing the two albums side-by-side is a window into Bennett's creative process. From the gusty alto flute desolation of 'Still Inside the Deku Tree', the first volume conveys Bennett's influences, establishing the project's foundations. He draws from a fertile creative landscape - we're thinking Michiru Oshima's fantastic 'Ico' soundtrack and the beloved themes from Capcom's 'Resident Evil' series, just for starters. Alongside that stunning Bass Bansuri Flute opener, Save Room 6' is the stand-out, like some Selected Ambient Works Vol II nugget cast through almost ten minutes of hoisted atmospherics (is that the 'Dark Souls' bonfire we hear in the distance?) and pads that skew outside the obvious. Given time to ripen his concept, Bennett sets himself up with a Yamaha DX7, Roland D-50 and Roland JV1080 for Vol 2, focusing his narrative, shortening the tracks and emphasising negative space.
The concept widens substantially on 'Power Plant', leaning into the kind of reverberating '80s movie soundtrack aesthetics that contemporaneous games systems didn't have the power to process. It’s the moment Bennett's save rooms cross over most manifestly with Jon Hassell's Fourth World aesthetic. Perhaps Hassell's liminal, ambient-pilled world music actually inspired some of those OG save room themes in the first place, but hearing the correlation in this context makes complete sense, and Bennett's attention to detail and engineering skill brings out the richness of his synths. Using a tuning system developed by Xenakis on 'Glass Castle', JAB settles eerie, dissonant piano motifs against unmistakable FM pads and glass harmonica drones, and on 'Computer Terminal' follows the xenharmonic through-line, queering restorative warbles into psychoactive textures.
Mind-nourishing and atmospherically luxe, 'Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2' is a fine example of how video game music can cross brazenly into the avant-garde.