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Petri Alanko says leaving The Oldest House for CONTROL Resonant’s warped Manhattan gave him room to approach the sequel’s music on its own terms. He did not want to imitate Inception; instead, he built his musical starting point around Dylan Faden’s vulnerability and the possibility that a seemingly replaceable man could become irreplaceable.

Why Alanko wanted a new setting

In a report published by TechRadar on October 7, 2026, composer Petri Alanko described moving beyond the first game’s Oldest House as a relief and a fresh creative opportunity.

“It was a great relief that we exited The Oldest House and used the nightmarish Manhattan-like surroundings for the game setting.”

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The shift is not simply a change of scenery. Remedy describes CONTROL Resonant as an action-adventure RPG starring Dylan Faden in a warped Manhattan. For Alanko, the scale and atmosphere of that environment offered a different way to think about the character and the score.

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Why he did not want to redo Inception

The Manhattan-like setting has prompted comparisons with Inception, but Alanko said he deliberately avoided treating the film as a musical blueprint. He told TechRadar:

“I tried not to re-do Inception,” Alanko said. “That would’ve been a tad tacky and would have reduced Remedy’s concept to something less worthwhile. I don’t personally believe in replicating or redoing, although in some rare cases an homage is fitting, actually, but such cases are indeed very few.”

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His point is about preserving the game’s identity, not denying the setting’s resemblance to a familiar cinematic idea. Alanko’s aim was to make the score serve Remedy’s own concept rather than evoke another work so strongly that it diminished the game’s distinctiveness.

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How Manhattan’s scale shaped the music for Dylan

Alanko connected the environment’s grandeur with Dylan’s precarious place within it. He described the scenery as “beautiful, epic, majestic,” but said its scale could also make a person feel small and replaceable. The creative challenge, as he put it, was to make Dylan feel irreplaceable against that vast backdrop:

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“There’s so much more to the scenery than just the buildings; it’s about the scale and the feeling, feeling small and replaceable… how would you represent Dylan there so that one felt he’d be irreplaceable? That was the source of the backbone of Dylan-related pieces in the game.”

That contrast—an immense, threatening world around a vulnerable protagonist—became a foundation for the Dylan-related music. The score’s point of view begins with how little Dylan has at the start, not with an assumption that he is already a fully formed hero.

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What “Tabula Rasa” says about Dylan’s beginning

Alanko said that accentuating Dylan’s starting point was among his first steps in conceptualizing the music. He called Dylan “a blank slate, a tabula rasa,” who must recover and become human before becoming “something else.” He linked that idea directly to the track “Tabula Rasa”:

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“Hence the descending nature of the harmony of ‘Tabula Rasa’ and the clangorous percussion — it’s an introduction to Dylan and Hedron, in simple terms, a little like a concert overture.”

Alanko also described the noisy sounds toward the end of the piece as potentially suggesting breathing again after a coma, for both protagonist and antagonist. He said he wanted to express Dylan’s fragility: how brittle he was at the outset and the distance between that beginning and where he ended up. These are Alanko’s explanations as published by TechRadar; they are not claims that the music has only one possible interpretation.

CONTROL Resonant release and platform context

Remedy’s official game page identifies CONTROL Resonant as the sequel to CONTROL, with Dylan Faden using his powers while fighting for his humanity and survival in a warped Manhattan. Remedy’s June 2, 2026 release announcement says the game launched worldwide on September 24, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. It also lists GeForce NOW support and a Mac release planned for later in 2026 through Steam and the App Store. The announcement said physical and digital editions were available for pre-order; it does not establish current stock or edition contents.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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