Piano Squall Featured on IGN, SquareSound Mentioned
Posted by Tim on Apr 15, 2008
Our staff and forum member soapy is doing an internship over at IGN, and she just finished writing a feature story about Piano Squall. The article talks about Michael's GAME CD, his charity work, and our recent interview with Nobuo Uematsu. She asked me a couple of questions about meeting with Michael and used some of my responses in the story along with a link to SquareSound. Not too shabby! The article is a very interesting read, so be sure to check it out. If you haven't already, be sure to also pick up a copy of the GAME CD, which features a bunch of excellent piano arrangements from series like Final Fantasy, Super Mario, Chrono Cross, Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, and much more. It's only $9.99 and a portion of every sale goes to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
To give you a taste of what to expect from this album, check out the video below that I took when I hung out with Michael prior to the recent Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concert. I know you've heard this before, but we will soon be releasing the video interview with Nobuo Umatsu and Arnie Roth, we've just run into some video editing issues. I'll also be posting the video of Josh Barron'sKingdom Hearts Piano Collection recordings very soon!
New Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Arrangement Competition
Posted by Tim on Apr 10, 2008
After the huge success of the last competition, it was inevitable that there would be a follow-up, even it is slightly more low-key this time. After seeing all the hysteria revolving around Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, what better time to embrace the music than now?
The next competition is scheduled to happen during May-June, so the sign-up process will end on the 8th of May 2008, with entries needing to be submitted by the 1st of June 2008. The results will then be announced shortly afterwards. We'll have a registration form available shortly.
The last competition had an extraodinary prize and while we won't be able to deliver that kind if prize every competition, that doesn't mean we're going to skimp. The prize for this competition will be the winner's choice of either the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core game for the PSP or the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Original Soundtrack. If there are at least 20 entrants in the competition who submit an
arrangement, we'll award a second copy of the game or soundtrack to the
first runner-up.
Any piece from the Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core OST or the Final Fantasy VII OST will be allowed for submission into the competition, and all pieces that fall outside these criteria will unfortunately not be counted in the judging process. Speaking of the judging process, more information will be announced about that shortly, but I will confirm that Ronin will once again be helping us judge the competition.
For discussion about this competition, please visit this thread in our forums. We hope you'll consider participating!
Music4Games Interviews Nobuo Uematsu about The Black Mages III
Posted by Tim on Mar 21, 2008
Our friends at Music4Games.com have recently conducted an interview with Nobuo Uematsu about his new Black Mages album "The Black Mages III ~Darkness and Starlight~." Be sure to check it out! Editing of our interview with Mr. Uematsu is in progress, and I hope to get it posted in the next few weeks. Darkness and Starlight is available for purchase in our store and is now shipping!
The Black Mages III ~Darkness and Starlight~ to be Released March 19th
Posted by Tim on Mar 17, 2008
The third Black Mages album entitled "Darkness and Starlight" is set for release on March 19, 2008. We've added the track list and other coverage of this album to our site. Pre-orders placed for this album should ship within a week or so of the release date. To see some videos and hear some samples from this album, please check out the official album page.
These last few weeks have been exciting, but insanely busy. I attended the Distant Worlds concert in Chicago on March 1st, and had the privelege of interviewing Nobuo Uematsu and concert conductor Arnie Roth before the show. I also had the privelege of hanging out with Michael "Piano Squall" Gluck (who conducted the interview with me) for Friday evening and all day (and most of the night) Saturday. We were thrown a bit of a curve when our promised translator wasn't present, but luckily, Michael is well-versed in Japanese so we were able to successfully complete the interview.
Afterwards, Michael and I met up with Andrew Aversa (who won our Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition), and our featured arrangerJosh Barron. We went to dinner and then went to the concert. What an amazing day it was! I have a lot of video footage to add to the site over the next few weeks including the full interview with Uematsu and Roth, a brief interview with Andrew Aversa and his girlfriend and fellow OC ReMixerJillian Goldin, post-concert reactions from all of us, and some exclusive footage of Michael and Josh performing on a piano we found at a nearby hotel. Michael played his rendition of "The Athlete's Rag" (my personal favorite) from his GAME album, his newest arrangement "Terra's Theme" from Final Fantasy VI, and snippets of a few other pieces. Meanwhile, Josh performed a couple of his own arrangements from the Kingdom Hearts Piano Collection project. I'm just getting into video editing myself, so it will take me a while to get it all up here. I plan to write up a full concert/interview journal to accompany the video footage, and will be posting a lot of pictures as well. Stay tuned for that.
In other news, I've finally got the arrangement archive caught up with all the arrangements I've received over the past few weeks. Be sure to check them all out, including some very nice arrangements from our soon-to-be newest featured arranger Alex Lamonte!
Posted by Tim on Apr 15, 2008
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