The Alien: Isolation soundtrack is a 2014 score from composers Christian Henson and Joe Cahill of Spitfire Audio that does exactly what a good horror score should — it makes you feel like something is wrong before you can articulate why. Drawing heavily from Jerry Goldsmith’s original 1979 Alien score and the analogue synthesiser textures of that era, it’s a record that sounds like it was recorded on equipment that predates the game it accompanies.
Featuring oscillating drones, orchestral stabs and the kind of atonal creeping unease that burrows into the back of your skull and stays there. It’s as much a love letter to late seventies science fiction sound design as it is a functional horror score, and it holds up as a listening experience completely divorced from the game — which is the mark of a soundtrack that was treated as a serious piece of work rather than an afterthought.
It sits in orchestral and ambient with strong electronic and avant-garde elements — rooted in the classic 1970s science fiction sound palette of analogue synthesis and atonal orchestration. If you’re familiar with the work of Jerry Goldsmith or Ennio Morricone’s more experimental output, it lives in that same territory.
It was released by Spitfire Audio in 2014.