People of Inspiration

Michael Sechrist

Who is Sechrist?

Sechrist has been working for the company Bungie for many years alongside many other composers. Each has their own spin on the music that feels distinct and unique. Sechrist is able to express incredible emotion through his music. This led to one of his biggest songs during Destiny 2's expansion called Beyond Light. The DLC is always concluded with a massive 6 person raid that has complex mechanics that require a lot of teamwork to overcome. This particular raid was called Deep Stone Crypt which was received pretty well in the context of the expansion itself. This raid contained a section where the player has to do a lot of parkour to make it to the next part. This "jumping puzzle" was where this song was placed. It was called Deep Stone Lullaby.

This song introduced an important turning point in the franchise. Deeply emotional music had been seen before like in the instance of Journey from the vanilla Destiny 2 campaign. But none had ever had a grand set piece like this song. As the player was out in space and looking down at planet earth, they felt so small in comparison to everything else. The lone piano and elegant French horns created a truly unforgettable experience. This song still deeply touches the community. It has become a tradition to mute all communication during this part of the raid and to crank up the music. This will truly be a special moment for the rest of this game's life.

Deep Stone Sleep

The moment I heard the opening few notes to his most famous song, Deep Stone Lullaby, I was sold on his vision. Working with Bungie for many years has opened people up to the deeply emotional angle that he created in his music. The way that he is able to compose separate parts of a melody that combine into something that gives you pause is incredible. The long drawn out notes were a central part of this melody. He was able to capture his vision of the song representing the moment an Exo (a human mind trapped in a robotic body with no prior memories of their life) woke for the first time perfectly.

I will always remember doing this raid for the first time and just having my breath taken away by this one song. Since then, he has become a core part of the musical composers within Bungie. His emotional music still leaves its marks on the game and community to this day.

Some of my personal favorite songs of his are: