Post-rock band 65daysofstatic just dropped 'Journeys,' a 32-track album that doubles as a manifesto against AI-generated music. Nine years after scoring No Man's Sky, the band partnered with Hello Games to transform procedural soundscapes into intentionally human compositions, directly challenging the AI content flooding platforms like Spotify.
The timing couldn't be more pointed. As AI-generated bands sneak onto Spotify and synthetic music floods streaming platforms, 65daysofstatic just released an album that serves as both soundtrack and statement. 'Journeys' marks the post-rock band's return to No Man's Sky nine years after their original score, but this isn't just nostalgia - it's resistance.
"It's just capitalism, isn't it?" says band member Paul Wolinski in an interview with The Verge. "It's ruining everything. It's all these CEOs who don't understand the difference between art and content." The frustration is palpable as human artists watch algorithms churn out endless streams of synthetic music designed purely for engagement metrics.
The 32-track album emerged from a year-long collaboration between Wolinski and Hello Games audio director Paul Weir. Together, they transformed abstract soundscapes originally designed for No Man's Sky's procedural generation system into fully realized compositions. Where algorithms once reassembled these pieces infinitely, human hands now craft them into something deliberately finite and intentional.
"For this record, we were much more interested in turning all of that infinite stuff into something more intentional - something bespoke and artisan," Wolinski explained. The shift mirrors No Man's Sky's own evolution from troubled launch to beloved space epic, reflecting a broader industry grappling with the balance between automation and artistry.
The numbers tell the story of this symbiotic relationship. Nine of 65daysofstatic's most-played songs on Spotify come from their No Man's Sky work. The game's soundtrack transcended its original medium, becoming integral to the band's live performances in ways few video game scores achieve. "To us, it has always been a 65daysofstatic record as much as the No Man's Sky score," Wolinski notes.
But the cultural landscape has shifted dramatically since 2016. When No Man's Sky first launched with its procedural generation promises, algorithmic content creation felt like exciting futurism. Now, as artists fight AI impersonators and platforms overflow with AI-generated content, that same technology carries dystopian undertones.
