Ready to celebrate some musical alchemy?
Many Japanese developers have their own niche in gaming; and, with that, their own niche in music. Falcom’s “Sound Team jdk” has its own well-defined style, as does Konami’s “Kukeiha Club.” Gust’s sound team, sometimes referred to as the “So-La Sound Team,” does some things that no one else in game music does.
The current roster of the team is Akira Tsuchiya (the leader and veteran), Ken Nakagawa, and Daisuke Achiwa. These three composers first worked together on the fifth game in Gust’s long-running Atelier series, Atelier Viorate (that’s the official romanization: “Atelier Violet” is probably a much better attempt at the name). Before that, Tsuchiya had worked on the other Atelier games with different groupings of composers, but it was clear that Gust had struck gold with this trio. It only makes sense, then, that the next three games in the Atelier series (the Atelier Iris trilogy) would come from this same crew.
The Atelier Viorate soundtrack is not an easy find, as it was released for purchase exclusively through Gust’s website in limited quantities. However, starting with Atelier Iris Eternal Mana, Gust began to rely on the Japanese company “TEAM Entertainment.” Thus, due to the soundtrack’s relatively high availability, as well as the fantastic music found on the discs, we are naming the Atelier Iris Eternal Mana Original Soundtrack our March 2009 “Soundtrack of the Month.”
Find our full review after the jump. (more…)
