How a 17-Year-Old Video Game Inspired This Album of Electronic Music

The idea that video games can be considered art has long been accepted by mainstream critics. Time and again, this notion has been proven by games such as Okami and more recently Red Dead Redemption 2, showing that video games can contain the depth of an epic movie or even a classical painting. One of the most famous from this elite collection of games is Silent Hill 2.

Silent Hill 2 is a game whose contents have been more than sufficiently reviewed elsewhere but in a nutshell, it's a heavily layered story of emotional trauma wrapped up in a survival horror game.

What does that have to do with music? Let's find out.

From 'Silent Hill' to Great Britain

Once you get under the skin of Silent Hill 2, you may find yourself getting emotionally attached to the story in some unexpected ways, the most likely of which is through the story of our main protagonist, James.

This is what served as the primary source of inspiration for British electronic music producer Northern Introvert, whose latest piece of work is aptly named Silent.

"What stood out to me was James' inability to escape his demons, resulting in a seemingly endless collection of one way paths which see him descending down stairs, lifts, and even climbing down holes. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't get back to the surface unless he faced his demons."

Hopefully, the cause of James' demons isn't something you can personally relate to. After all, he did commit some rather... questionable acts in his earlier days. The general theme of escapism, however, is a phenomenon that we all indulge in on some level throughout times in our life, and is a concept that stands tall in the game among other more gruesome plot details.

Silent Hill 2 was first released in 2001 and although gaming technology has moved on since then, the themes in this game are as relevant today as they were when it was first released. This is a key characteristic of many widely respected artworks and also explains the lasting popularity of classical literatures such as Dostoyevsky's 1886 novel Crime and Punishment.

The anti-aging element of these works is in part due to the fact that whilst our cultures continue to evolve at great speed, we the people are inherently the same as our counterparts from the 19th century that Dostoyevsky knew and was himself inspired by.

All this begs the question, will the relatability of human nature in these timeless works ever cease to exist and if so, what kind of world would be required to cause this?