Marty O'Donnell, the composer behind the music of Halo and Destiny, is part of the studio making the PlayStation VR game Golem, for which he has a new musical project.

O'Donnell's project is called Echoes of the First Dreamer and it's a musical prequel to the upcoming game Golem, which is in development for PlayStation VR by Highwire Games. The Kickstarter project is being headed by Marty O'Donnell, the veteran video game composer known for creating Halo's iconic Gregorian chant theme and the collection of music found in Destiny.

O'Donnell says Echoes of the First Dreamer will not be the soundtrack for Golem, but is instead a collection of music meant to be listened to and enjoyed apart from the game:

"It's a standalone listening experience. It's meant to introduce you to the world of Golem; of magic, of mystery."

The idea of creating a musical prequel isn't new for O'Donnell. In fact, he had similar plans with Destiny when he was the composer and Audio Director at Bungie, before he was terminated. That project was called Music of the Spheres, and was to be a collection of music that also included work that O'Donnell did with the Beatles' Paul McCartney. O'Donnell even makes mention of it in the project video on Kickstarter:

"It's a concept I've had in the past, but now with your help I believe we can get it done."

Music of the Spheres, like Echoes of the First Dreamer, was originally planned to be a musical prequel to the world of Destiny that would be released as a soundtrack. There were also rumors about it being performed live in numerous venues before the launch of Destiny but nothing became of that.

According to reports and legal documents from O'Donnell's litigation with Bungie (a legal battle which he ended up winning), Music of the Spheres was one of the sources of contention that led to Bungie management terminating O'Donnell. As a result, the collection of music ended up as a casualty of O'Donnell's split with Bungie.

So it seems that Echoes of the First Dreamer is an attempt at redemption for the passion project O'Donnell had with Music of the Spheres. The musical prequel to Golem is currently on Kickstarter with a $45,000 goal. As of this writing, the project is over 20% to being funded with 31 days left to go.

Golem is a VR game being developed by Highwire Games, and was featured at PlayStation Experience last December. It's expected to be a launch title for PlayStation VR, and Highwire Games hopes it will help define what VR games can be.

Echoes of the First Dreamer is expected to be released September 2016. Golem is set to launch with PlayStation VR, which according to reports could be in fall 2016.

What do you think about musical projects like Echoes of the First Dreamer, which break out of the traditional official soundtrack offerings of the game industry? Will you back it? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Kickstarter