 The music in Journey was composed and orchestrated by Austin Wintory , who had previously worked with Thatgamecompany on the soundtrack for Flow . Wintory worked closely on the soundtrack with sound designer Steve Johnson , as well as the programming team , so the music would dynamically tie in to both the actions of the player and sound effects caused by nearby game objects , and feel as if it were " <unk> in real time " . Johnson felt having short pieces of music that looped without reacting to the player would be a " missed opportunity " , and wanted to create music that changed while still containing a composed emotional arc . Jenova Chen met with Wintory at the start of the game 's development to describe his vision for the project , and Wintory left the meeting and composed and recorded the main cello theme for the soundtrack that night . He continued to work on the soundtrack for the next three years , experimenting and discarding many ideas . The game 's orchestrations were performed by the <unk> Radio Symphonic Orchestra in Macedonia . 
