Get Your Galactic Groove On with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Welcome to Knowhere EP Original Video Game Soundtrack

Turn up the volume! From today, alien techno aficionados can listen to the soundsystem-shaking electronic music heard on Knowhere in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Welcome to Knowhere EP Original Video Game Soundtrack features four EDM influenced tunes that combine breaks, beats, outer-worldly vocals and earth-shattering basslines to rock any dancefloor, in any galaxy. Furthermore, in response to numerous fan requests, the EP also contains the music from the “Huddle”—the anthemic power up rock build-up, as well as the Spaghetti Western influenced music for the karaoke showdown with notorious smuggler, Lipless.

A fan favorite, Knowhere is the lively mining port based inside the head of a dead Celestial being, and is full of places to drink, gamble and reflect. Our gang of misfits visit Knowhere during their adventure, giving players an unforgettable and outlandish experience while exploring this infamous destination. Music was key for making Knowhere feel alive, with each visitable destination given its own signature sound. Collectively, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Welcome to Knowhere EP Original Video Game Soundtrack brings this music together and features six out-of-this-world weird and wonderful tracks drawing inspiration from alien techno, to dark haunting industrial, to new age synthesized sound.

Check out the clip below for a first listen!

All featured tracks are composed, performed, and produced by BAFTA and IVOR NOVELLO nominated composer Richard Jacques, with the bonus EP available for free across all major streaming platforms from 8 April 2022.

Check out the full tracklisting, with descriptions from Jacques:

• Bizarre Bazaar – “Intergalactic synth vibes meet heavy hard-hitting breaks”
• Nice Try, Terran – “Hypnotic alien techno featuring trance like extra-terrestrial vocals”
• Mantlo's Bar – “Rocket’s favorite establishment. Gritty industrial breaks with exotic astral chanting”
• The Collectors Emporium – “Mesmerizing new age sonic washes featuring ethnic wind”
• Showdown With Lipless – “Spaghetti Western influenced standoff, featuring the Guardians main theme”
• The Huddle – “Inspirational stadium rock with rousing crowd chant”

Jacques commented: "I’m thrilled fans can now listen to these tracks and experience the full breadth of music we created for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. I grew up listening to everything from dance to rock to classical to synth, to name just a few. This game celebrates musical diversity, and I was fortunate to have the freedom to compose a soundtrack with Eidos-Montréal that showcases everyday inspiration, influences and eclecticism rooted in modern music.”

We sat down with Richard Jacques and picked his brain about his and Senior Audio Director Steve Szczepkowski's inspiration to bring every corner of Knowhere to life through music.

What was your first impression of Knowhere when you were introduced to it?

I was amazed at the art direction when I first saw Knowhere—the attention to detail in all different areas, from the marketplace, through to all the bars and clubs, the Collector’s Emporium and leading up to the Rift viewing platform is just mesmerizing. It already seemed like a living, breathing space port and I was excited about the possibilities of bringing further life to the environment through music. Just looking at the concept artwork provided me with a huge number of creative possibilities!

What was your overall approach for the music in Knowhere?

I wanted each main area that the player visits to have its own signature music track. For instance, the minute the elevator arrives at the marketplace in Knowhere, there are a couple of alien creatures dancing in front of a stall. These ideas use unlikely combinations of musical styles, something that you would not necessarily expect, unless you are visiting Knowhere. The music needed to feel like a part of each area, so for example there is club that you walk past that is booming out ‘alien techno’ which uses a strange musical scale to make it feel ‘other-worldly’, if you will.

For some of the set piece locations, such as Mantlo’s Bar (which happens to be Rocket’s favourite), I wanted this location to feel like a real bar which is inhabited not only by our bunch of misfits, but also with some rather dubious characters. Various vintage analogue synthesizers were used in the creation of the music from Knowhere, as well as unorthodox tunings and experimental sounds and electronic processing effects. In essence, I wanted to make Knowhere feel alive, and the music works hand in hand with all the alien creature sounds and stunning artwork to achieve this.

Knowhere has its own sub-areas, from the market to the Collector’s Emporium—tell us about how you made it as musical journey for the player as well.

It was important that all the sub-areas were also populated with music, even if players didn’t get to visit them on their first playthrough. The Collector’s Emporium is a museum which holds artifacts from across the Marvel Universe, so it was essential to make a feature out of this, and the music that accompanies your visit to the museum is an ambient new age type track, featuring various unusual ethnic wind instruments, giving a feeling that could easily be routed in historical various settings.

Lipless’ scene is quite unique, and music obviously had its role to play in making it memorable. What motivated this particular choice of music?

This optional encounter is one of my personal favorites in the game. I understand that the development team had been playing around with this idea from an early stage, but it all came together toward the end of the development process. Lipless is a character that is deeply terrifying yet highly entertaining, and the music needed to reflect the latter.

In discussion with Steve Szczepkowski, Senior Audio Director at Eidos-Montréal, we came up with the idea of making this scene like a showdown you would get in a Spaghetti Western movie. The music is actually based around our main Guardians theme, yet in this setting it definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

How did the music for the Huddle come together?

When I first saw The Huddle, I once again worked closely with Steve to get some initial conceptual ideas. This section of gameplay is where the player (Star-Lord) gives a ‘team talk’ to the other Guardians, a motivational speech to boost their confidence for the incoming combat, if you will. We thought that it was similar to a sports-style huddle, and therefore chose to create a build-up track using anthemic stadium-type drums and guitars with a crowd chant. This will then prepare the player for what is about to come!

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Welcome to Knowhere EP Original Video Game Soundtrack completes the in-game music featured in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and sits alongside the previously launched original orchestral soundtrack, the Star-Lord Band full-length album, and the licensed music ‘80s playlist. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is available now on PlayStation®5 console, PlayStation®4 console, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, PC, and streaming via GeForce NOW. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Cloud Version for Nintendo Switch™ is also available now in select regions.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is an award winning single-player story-driven action-adventure game, set in an original Guardians universe. For the most up-to-date information about Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, tune in to Marvel.com and follow Marvel Games on Twitter for the latest announcements!