This is the OST of a game jam titled Solar Eclipse that was created during Ludum Dare #53. I've composed the track within roughly two fifths of the 72 hours of the jam (the rest of which I've spent coding or sleeping).
The main source of inspiration for the track was Bhutanese (and partially Tibetan) culture and music. Solar Eclipse is somewhat of a prequel for a solarpunk game that the others and I would like to work on someday, so Bhutan, as one of the world's most ecologically sustainable and happiest countries, was a prime choice.
Jhator, the title of the only track of this OST, is the traditional name of the practice of Sky Burial (look it up if it doesn't ring a bell, it's absolutely fascinating). In Solar Eclipse, the main character, Tempest, must kill the spirit of the sun, which is being unsustainably exploited by the local folk. As the sun spirit resides high up on a tree and is killed by the spirit of the wind, Jhator came to mind as a fitting theme with a pleasant, slightly gothy touch (even though the final track isn't particularly gothy except for some influences of Dark Wave in the drums).
Also, you don't want to know how long it took me to figure out what kind of pentatonic scale they use in Bhutanese music... (It took about an hour, there seems to be hardly any information about it on the web so I needed to rely on weirdly designed websites and trial and error with music videos on YouTube.) It's either CDFGA or CDEGA - for this track I've used the former, rearranged to DFGAC.
You can play Solar Eclipse here:
moonlitmonitors.itch.io/solar-eclipse
released May 3, 2023