There’s a new Amanita Design game in town! That means a new Floex soundtrack with Phonopolis. The game launched on 20th May and there’s 60 minutes of new musical excellence to experience.
Whilst offering all the familiar looping, neoclassical, electronic familiar Floex-ness, it also has a unique soundscape that has a heavy emphasis on sound effects, drawing players into the experience unlike previous Amanita games. It’s a wonderful score and offers something for everyone.
The Clever Soundscapes of Phonopolis
Amanita Design has very kindly put the whole score up for free on its official YouTube channel. We’ve timestamped our favourite of the lot above, that’s the track called Anton (but feel free to swoop through the whole score, that’s it above right there).
Anton is the eighth composition, but there are 17 in total.
And whilst his previous work (such as the incredible Samorost 3 soundtrack) offers more unusual, cosmic themes of experimentation, we’d say the Phonopolis score is one of his more accessible works.
The genre is sometimes called folktronica. As in, mixing traditional instruments with synthesisers and ambient sound design.
But… that characteristic Floex (Tomáš Dvořák is his real name) style is always there. Like with the beautiful Composer’s Apartment below, that signature blend of electronic production alongside acoustic instrumentation.
He merges tension and natural musicality, always there with that adventurous and nervous spirit.
Amanita Design teased us all pre-release with one of the tracks. Railway Electro is a classic Floex composition, that looping electronic ambience in action. He has this capacity, like all great composers, to make pieces that feel instantly familiar.
If this was an album from the ’70s, you’d bet this would be “the single” studios would hope for a top 10 hit kind of deal.
The work is a collaborative effort, too, as Amanita noted in its press release:
“The music for Phonopolis is being written and produced by Amanita’s long-term collaborator Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex (Machinarium, Samorost, Pilgrims) with sound effects provided by audio engineer and foley artist Matouš Godík (Samorost 3, Creaks). Until now, Amanita Design has been known for including no comprehensible language in their games. That changes with Phonopolis, as its story will be told in a narrative voice.”
That’s correct, as the game features narration for the first time in the Amanita universe. An English guy called Joe Acheson. Very nice, lending a soothing tone to complement the soundtrack. Acheson is a composer in his own right, he works as a solo artist as Hidden Orchestra and he composed the soundtrack to Amanita Design’s puzzle platformer Creaks (2018).
So, yes, Floex doesn’t always do the scores for Amanita’s games.
But he usually does and his style is so distinctive. Every moment in Phonopolis has been meticulously crafted to offer something unique. Heck, even the main menu theme is a melodic little number we’ll happily have drifting in the background whilst we work.
Amanita Design and Floex remain a match made in ambient heaven. These abstract, curious, intriguing games have been brought to immersive life through his music over the last decade. Long may this continue.
