Square Enix has announced the upcoming release of the latest addition to the Piano Opera series, this time covering tracks from Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX. As previously in the series, Hiroyuki Nakayama lends his pianist artistry for the compositions, which are provided by none other than you guessed it, Nobuo Uematsu.
Square Enix’s website for the release has confirmed a number of the tracks to appear on the album. “Opening ~ Bombing Mission”, “Interrupted by Fireworks” and “Cosmo Canyon” from Final Fantasy VII, as well as “Ami”, “Force Your Way”, “Liberi Fatali” and “The Man with the Machine Gun” from Final fantasy VIII, and “Melodies of Life”, “Rose of May” and “You’re Not Alone” from Final Fantasy IX.
The website is currently streaming a portion of “Opening ~ Bombing Mission”, which is a fine example of how the arrangement sounds. If you want the ultimate experience however, you will have to head to the Yomiuri Otemachi Hall in Tokyo, Japan, where the tracks will come to life via concert format. The cost for such an experience (not including flights or anything else associated with travel) is roughly double the price of the album (so around 6,000 yen or $60 USD).
Square Enix has recently announced the upcoming release of the new Yoko Shimomura arranged album, Memória. The album, released on March 26, commemorates the 25th Anniversary of Shimomura’s illustrious career and will feature a number of orchestral arrangements from various games and albums.
Following the same concept employed by Shimomura’s previous, Drammatica, Memória delves into the musical depths that has long created admiration and respect for Shimomura, as well as enjoyment and inspiration to fans. The track listings will be recognizable to most, with selections ranging from Super Mario RPG, the Mana series and of course, Kingdom Hearts.
The official Square Enix Memória site (In Japanese, as per usual) will get you pricing details (3,000 yen or around $29 USD) to go with the release date, as well as a single track streaming on demand to give a taste of the quality in store. Judging from the response and critical acclaim Drammatica received, it would be fair to say anyone who buys this would be in for a treat.
Blake Robinson, creator of the Synthetic Orchestra, has released a single snippet of his most recent arrangement, Chrono Trigger Symphony Volume 3. The arrangement, which will be the 3rd and final of this series, shows off Robinson’s unique talent for creating ultra-realistic synthetic compositions.
The three albums pay homage to the original SNES score composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. Samples of the 1st and 2nd albums are currently available to stream via SoundCloud.
Square-Enix has uploaded new samples of the recently released Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster soundtrack. Like most Final Fantasy soundtracks these days, the High-Definition treatment has been applied, and with incredible results. The Square-Enix soundtrack webpage hosts all the samples necessary to induce excitement for this release, and to make it easy I have the link just here.
Both soundtracks have gone on sale as of the 25th December 2013, and are available from the Japanese Amazon and the Square-Enix e-Store for the tidy sum of ¥5,000.
A little while ago I commented on Square-Enix’s announcement of a remastered trilogy that would do justice to the brilliance of Uematsu’s Super Famicom work.
This week, Square-Enix has published the third and final part of the original soundtrack remastered version trilogy, the forever eternal, Final Fantasy VI. Thirty select samples across the 3-disc CD set are currently available to be streamed on the trilogy’s official website (Japanese). Time to reminisce in the remastered character themes of ‘Terra’, ‘Locke’, and ‘Edgar and Sabin’, and to relive those unforgettable moments in the story through tunes like ‘Coin of Fate’, The Phantom Forest’, and ‘The Serpent Trench’.
The release would not be complete without some flash artwork from long time Final Fantasy contributor, Yoshitaka Amano, whose memorable work graces the cover as well as the liner work of the album. The album is now on sale on Square-Enix’s Japanese e-store for 3,500円 (Around US$ 33), but like the other remastered releases I am sure that it will make its way to us western fans via iTunes soon enough.
Nobuo Uematsu’s newest piece of work has been recently debuted digitally on iTunes in the form of an e-book. The e-book, titled Blik-0 1946, is a change of pace for Uematsu, most renowned for his composing duties for the Final Fantasy series.
The e-book, which has been in development for a few years, will also feature an original 3-track accompaniment created specially by Uematsu. Arguably the best thing about the release however, is the fact that an English version is available to readers outside of Japan.
Acttil, the e-book’s publisher, has promoted the release of this hotly anticipated product on their website, which includes the release price of $9.99.
An interview with Uematsu regarding his newest endeavour and his reasons for its release can be found here.
Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu has surprised many with the recent news that he and popular JRPG composer, Kenji Ito, will be contributing some of the music for the upcoming iOS title, Oceanhorn.
Our friends at OC ReMix have recently released their 40th remixed album: Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin. This fan-arranged album contains 74 tracks from 74 different talented Remixers. The project was headed up by Andrew Aversa, winner of our Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu arrangement competition back in 2007/2008.
Immersive concert event Video Games Live has recently announced 30+ more shows around the world. New country locations have been added to this year’s ‘blazing summer tour’, including China, Brazil, Dubai, Peru, Mexico, Argentina and the United States.
The tour is well known for producing incredible shows in some of the most famous venues and with the biggest symphonies in the world. Square-Enix titles such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Kingdom Hearts to name a few, have been featured heavily in the event’s orchestral format since the concerts debut in 2005.
More information regarding ticketing and current tour dates can be found here.
Fans to the concerts and newcomers to the scene should watch out for the upcoming Kickstarter campaign for the next VGL big project involving the video game music community. This has been announced to happen in the first week of July. Stay tuned for more information as it is released!
News from the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has indicated that Kingdom Hearts series composer, Yoko Shimomura, will take up composition duties for the upcoming Final Fantasy XV.
