BEHIND SUBORBITAL // REAL WORLD
Behind SubOrbital
SubOrbital Records is fictional.
The people behind it are not.
The artists, releases and stories in this archive belong to a world inspired by Star Citizen. But behind the fiction is a very real creative process shaped by music, photography, storytelling and community.
This is the part where the archive steps aside for a moment.
01 // YANNICK // THE PERSON
The real person behind the signal
My name is Yannick.
Online, most people know me as Yannock.
Music has been part of my life for a long time, but never through a traditional path. I used to DJ, and my background came through electronic music, rap, sampling, rhythm and atmosphere rather than classical training.
I cannot read a score, and I have no formal background in music theory.
What I do have is years of listening, experimenting, starting again, and knowing when something finally sounds like what I had in mind.
AI-assisted and generative tools are part of the process behind SubOrbital Records, but they are not a replacement for creative direction.
Sometimes a track takes a few versions.
Sometimes eighteen.
Sometimes more.
The tool can produce sound.
It cannot decide what SubOrbital Records is supposed to feel like.
That part is mine.
02 // YANNOCK // THE CREATOR IDENTITY
Yannock
For years, I have been documenting the Star Citizen universe through virtual photography.
Not simply as screenshots, but as photographs of places, ships, people and moments inside a world I have spent a great deal of time exploring.
That work naturally became part of my streams, community projects and my involvement with Imperial Geographic.
A lot of what appears in SubOrbital comes from that same world.
The photographs are real captures made inside Star Citizen. Many were made with the help of friends and members of the community.
SubOrbital Records simply gave me another way to document the same universe.
This time, through music.
03 // NOK VAREN // THE FICTION
And then there is Nok
Inside SubOrbital Records, the person behind the project is Nok Varen.
Nok is not simply me under another name. He is the fictional point of contact between the real creative process and the world in which SubOrbital exists.
Some of my instincts inevitably found their way into him: listening before speaking, being drawn to imperfect things, and wanting to preserve moments before they disappear.
But Nok belongs to the archive.
Read Nok Varen’s file
METHOD // HUMAN DIRECTION
Process
SubOrbital Records combines human-led creative work with AI-assisted and generative tools.
The music is developed through generation, selection, rewriting, arrangement decisions, stem extraction, editing, mixing and mastering.
Narrative writing, lyrics, sequencing, artistic direction, visual identity and photography are human-led.
I do not present myself as a traditionally trained musician.
I am someone with an idea, a set of tools, and an unreasonable willingness to make version nineteen when version eighteen still does not feel right.
PROJECT FILE // ATTRIBUTION
Credits
- Concept, writing & creative direction
- Yannick “Yannock” Verne
- Music development, editing, mixing & mastering
- Yannick “Yannock” Verne, using AI-assisted and generative music tools as part of the process
- Photography & visual direction
- Yannock, with help from friends and members of the Star Citizen community
- Original universe
- Star Citizen, created by Cloud Imperium Games
- Special thanks
- The People’s Radio, Jade, the TPR crew, and everyone who contributed time, ships, characters, patience or enthusiasm to this archive.