The Droning Disturbance Of 'Spaces In-Between' | Analyzing OMORI Tracks - 004

(This is a video originally published in June)
Your favorite paper phenomenon is here to scrutinize (and rank) every track from OMORI. Music theory included sometimes.

Music used:
Poinpy OST - Puzzle Menu
OMORI OST - 004 Spaces In-between

Co-written by dalture

If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment! I love reading em. :)

[TheAdvertisement]

I absolutely love Spaces In-Between because despite the first four songs of this game all being oversimplified versions of what's later to come, all in their own ways, Spaces In-Between continues that trend... but only halfway. This song is never paid off. Sure the motif I believe appears at least once more in Snowglobe Mountain, but what I mean is it's never built upon in any substantial way, it's never given meaning.
Because, really, what is there to build upon? What meaning can you give it? Can I just say I absolutely love the sheet music you're giving for these because it visualizes some of my points and esp this next one so well- as you said, this is quite simply the most simplest way to make a song, with 3 chords, one to start, a second to build, a third to give tension, and the second one again to resolve. Granted those chords are arpeggiated but like, congrats you're one step away from baby's first sheet music.
Unlike the previous songs, who all felt artificially wiped away of their uniqueness, stripped down into their basic melodies, those basic melodies no matter how simple, are still recognizable, even White Space. They all have their themes and leitmotivic (is that a word?) ideas that they connect to later on, because in the reality of Omori they are complex ideas, and ones that were stripped down by the Dreamer to make Headspace, and more specifically this intro to game, feel safe and sterilized.
But Spaces In-Between isn't like that. It's more... natural. In fact it's almost the opposite of these previous tracks. The simple melody was always there, never built upon, while the real magic of the track, what makes it unique besides just its simplicity, is the effects built upon it. It's so weird because it feels like it shouldn't in direct comparison to the previous songs, who were almost purely their own melody with little human style, but these four droning chords have more genuine humanity to them then the sterile blankness we just walked out of. When you think of this song you don't think of its melody- you think of how simple its melody is, how droning it is, and how it sounds like the song's been programmed to play slowed down, giving it that bit of crunch that feels so unnatural and yet because of that, is the most natural version of the song.
So what does that mean? After coming out of sterilized, simplified melodies that you itch to know more about, you're hit with this natural, warm hug that's comfortable in its simplicity and yet... slightly off? It's a contradiction that you don't notice at first, only feel, and even then it works well to built up the quiet tension of the intro, before it finally breaks as you meet Mari and Basil. But unlike the title, unlike White Space, hell unlike even Neighbor's Room which are all given more meaning in other ways... every time you come back to this crossroads, this song is always there, chanting that haunting call of the Spaces In-Between. And only then, after you've come back to it multiple times, subconsciously worked it over in your head as to why this song never changes, why it feels so different, as you get closer to the truth in multiple ways...
You finally figure it out. Whether literally, through what my own theory is, or more emotionally, as you realize with Deeper Well and the build-up to Blackspace, that the natural functions of Sunny's mind are more terrifying than anything he could create through his facade of hiding it... you realize that Spaces In-Between never changes because it could never be made to. Omori never had control of it. Even when Sunny's mind becomes truly clouded with what he wants, cutting Omori off from the rest of the world, these spaces remain untouched. That crossroads as you exit the stump isn't just a hub because Omori wanted it to be around Neighbor's Room, it was a more natural branching-off point, that, much like Basil's house, Omori never could truly hide away. Spaces In-Between doesn't just represent an actual crossroads between areas, it's a crossroads between your mind, between ideas and thoughts, between existence and not. It's this perfect node in Sunny's mind that Omori could only cover over, that was never filled in, because it truly is just a blank space. Not made to be so like Whitespace, but a natural phenomena that arises as an exit point from this clashing, constructed world.
Spaces In-Between is a force of nature, and the first look this game gives you behind the scenes of what's really going on in Headspace. It feels so off because, within a dumbed down world, it's the one part so far that's _real, _ and even as the areas and themes get more complicated, Spaces In-Between stays as it is because that _is_ what it is. It never had anything to hide. That feeling when you end a hug and the warmth is pulled away. What you see when you close your eyes. That shift within pure unconsciousness between being awake and dreaming. That's what Spaces In-Between is. And it drones on because that primal rule will always be there, and in a manufactured world, you can never escape it. Spaces In-Between is that first harbinger of what's to come, and I love how I never realized it until it was too late.

[churchofmagic]

Spaces in between is one of those quietly unsettling tracks that really makes you feel something’s wrong