Original SoundCAST: Episode #014 (feat. Andrew “zircon” Aversa)

To us, Andrew Aversa is one of the few people who really represents what game music is all about. That’s because, even in the past year, Andrew has shown himself as a force to be reckoned with on all fronts: AAA game music, indie game music, and fan-made arrangements.

In this episode, Brenna Wilkes and I talk with Andrew for a solid hour about his work on Globulous (which Brenna recently reviewed), on Soul Calibur V, and the super-funded Kickstarter campaign for the OCRemix album under his direction: Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin. This last topic takes up over half of the episode, and it should! At the time we recorded this (Saturday), the campaign was at $60,000, 400% of the $15,000 goal. As I’m writing this post, they’re now at $75,000. I also got *this* in a Kickstarter Backer’s email:

What does that mean? Well, everyone who’s getting a physical copy of “Balance and Ruin” will also get a newly-printed, *all 4 disc* version of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream as well. That’s good stuff.

Anyway, listen to the episode to learn about everything zircon’s up to. And if you want even more podcast-delivered info on the Balance and Ruin project, please check out this great Nitro Game Injection “after-show” recording with Larry “Liontamer” Oji, which was just recorded on Sunday.

Download: Original SoundCAST Episode #014

If you want to know what BGM we have behind all that talk-talk-talk, click the “more” button.

[0:00:00] “Antigravity” from zircon’s original album Antigravity (feat. Jillian Aversa on vocals)
[0:04:30] “Rain Node” from Globulous (zircon)
[0:09:40] “Cavern Omega” from Globulous (Jeff Ball)
[0:15:20] “The Breeze at Dawn” from Soul Calibur V (Cris Velasco and Jillian Aversa)
[0:16:18] “Sacred Dawn” from Soul Calibur V (zircon)
[0:20:10] “Flying Heaven (Fei Long Stage)” from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (comp: Syun Nishigaki, arr: zircon)
[0:26:30] “Rhymes with Elixir (Chocobo Chocobo)” from Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption (The Scuba Divers, feat. Liontamer)
[0:32:00] “Dancing Mad” from Piano Opera Final Fantasy IV/V/VI (comp: Nobuo Uematsu, arr: Hiroyuki Nakayama)
[0:46:25] “The Serpent Trench” from Final Fantasy VI (Nobuo Uematsu)
[0:59:00] “Spinach Rag” from Piano Collections Final Fantasy VI (comp: Nobuo Uematsu, arr: IT REMAINS A MYSTERY, perf: Reiko Nomura)
[1:07:45] “Desertion” from OCRemix, arranged by zircon (source: “Battle,” “Decisive Battle” from Final Fantasy VI)