Over the years, I’ve come to know many composers. One of the questions I usually ask them is how they channel their creative energies when they’re not working on a project. More often than not, I’m told that they simply don’t write music unless it’s for a specific project. While scoring for a game, film, or other medium, the focus should be on meshing with and enhancing the visuals or other accompany media associated with that project, so with this specialized kind of writing, does somebody who only writes within the constraints of a project really qualify as an “artist?”
It’s a tough question to answer, but some ambitious albums, including Christopher Tin’s Calling All Dawns, Yasunori Mitsuda’s Kirite, and a number of other original efforts are clear demonstrations of what it means to go beyond being a composer for games or film by really exploring their own musical voices. With Zektbach, an alias of Tomosuke Funaki who is mostly known for his work on Beatmania and Guitar Freaks, we get an—excuse the expression—epic example of what Funaki is all about as an artist, taking the listener on a musical journey through a mainly fantasy soundscape infused with electronic elements and a live orchestra. Also of note is the fact that Osamu Kubota is the man responsible for all the arrangement, orchestration, conducting, and even performance of some instruments (including vocals!) on the album as well.
Find out what we think of The Epic of Zektbach -Ristaccia- after the jump! (more…)
