Yasunori Mitsuda

Doujin, Game Music

OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears by Materia Collective Available in December

November 30, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears by Materia Collective Available in December Share this

If you’re like me and you get a bit too sick of holiday and season music before the month of December even hits, even as it relates to video game music, then you’ll be in luck as of next week. Materia Collective and a slew of artists and musicians have created a huge tribute album to the music of one of Squaresoft’s most well-known Playstation games, Xenogears, just in time for us humbuggers to flock to.

OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears is a 44 track super album featuring a bevy of artists new and old contributing to the memory of Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack to the Squaresoft RPG; artists including Dale Noth, zYko, Lauren the Flute, Videri String Quartet and a lot more (including former OSV editor Michael Hoffman). Xenogears Original Soundtrack was released on March 1st, 1998 spread across two discs. The music of Xenogears covers numerous styles, including Celtic, Arabic, folk, and religious and the new tribute album works to further that diversity courtesy of album producer Chris Porter.

For OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears, the Materia Collective community came together in full force to pay tribute to one of the finest RPG soundtracks ever made. Over 130 arrangers, musicians, vocalists, lyricsts, mixing engineers, mastering engineers, translators, and engravers worked together to cover all 44 tracks from the original soundtrack. OMEGA features a diverse range of instrumentation and styles, from solo piano to full orchestra; guitar and mandolin duet to an enormous choir just to name a few. We put our hearts and souls into this album, and we hope we have made a fitting tribute to a soundtrack that has meant so much to so many people since it was released twenty years ago.

<a href="http://materiacollective.bandcamp.com/album/omega-a-tribute-to-xenogears">OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears by Fredrik Häthén</a>

OMEGA: A Tribute to Xenogears is currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp and will be fully released to the platform, as well as presumably iTunes, Spotify and more, on December 7th.
Doujin, Game Music

GameLark To Release Tribute Album to the “Chrono” Series of Games

April 25, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on GameLark To Release Tribute Album to the “Chrono” Series of Games Share this

Last year, the group GameLark released a tribute album to the composers of Rare and the music they produced over the developer’s tenure. This year, they plan to pay homage to a game series that has equally impacted video game music fans for an entire generation.

At the End of Time: A Tribute to Chrono Crono Cross & Chrono Trigger is a 17 track arrangement album that blends a variety of genres into one giant accolade to the series and to the composers of Chrono Trigger (Yasunori Mitsuda) and Chrono Cross (Nobuo Uematsu). A combination of surf rock, progressive metal, orchestral and more are represented on the album by GameLark contributors such as Toxodentrail, Daniel Romberger, Xnarky and the rest of the community.

<span style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

“Our goal with At the End of Time was simple. We wanted to offer listeners a unique, memorable journey whether they’ve experienced these games or not. The album art also hints that no matter who you are, you are going to be pulled into this adventure, and you might not be the same when it ends.”- Allen Brasch, Producer

<a href="http://gamelark.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-end-of-time-a-tribute-to-chrono-cross-chrono-trigger">At the End of Time: A Tribute to Chrono Cross & Chrono Trigger by Player2</a>

The album currently is available to pre-order on Bandcamp, iTunes and Google Play for around $10 and will be releasing fully on May 8th.
Game Music, Japanese

Sample Yasunori Mitsuda’s Valkyria Revolution Soundtrack

June 2, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Sample Yasunori Mitsuda’s Valkyria Revolution Soundtrack Share this

Leading up to the June 27th launch of Valkyria Revolution, Sega has published a video featuring the game’s music by composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Well known for his work on Square franchises going all the way back to Chrono Trigger, Mitsuda is still taking on new challenges today.

In the video he talks a bit about his “new and interesting experiment” with dynamic music that rises and falls based on the combat. Check out the video below to see and hear the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and singer Sarah Àlainn during a recording session and a bit more from Mitsuda. If you like the music you can get the 12-song soundtrack CD in the Vanargand Edition of the game, coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at the end of the month.
Game Music, Indie Music

OCRemix to release “Super Mario RPG: Window to the Stars” a digital 3CD Tribute Album!

January 31, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on OCRemix to release “Super Mario RPG: Window to the Stars” a digital 3CD Tribute Album! Share this

Coming soon from OCRemix: Super Mario RPG: Window to the Stars, a digital 3CD described by them as a tribute album to the music of one of the greatest RPG’s ever created. OC Remix has released a trailer for the album which you can watch below.

Although the release date has only been listed as 2017, you can view the full track listing on the video game music database here. Keep your eyes on OCremix’s site for this upcoming release.

Do you think Super Mario RPG is one of the greatest RPG’s ever created? How about it’s soundtrack?
Miscellaneous

Chrono Trigger Goes Hip Hop With Hero Muzik Volume II

December 13, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Chrono Trigger Goes Hip Hop With Hero Muzik Volume II Share this
Phoenix, Arizona – December 9, 2016 – Random Beats Music is thrilled to release Hero Muzik Vol. II by K-Murdock, a hip hop tribute to the lovable cast of characters from Squaresoft’s legendary Super Nintendo RPG, Chrono Trigger. Over the course of 12 tracks, K-Murdock and friends give voice to all the key protagonists as well as other memorable characters including tracks dedicated to Spekkio, Lavos, and mysterious gurus, Belthasar and Gaspar. Hero Muzik Vol. II is available now from Bandcamp.

“This album was a true labor of love, taking over two years to complete. Personally, this has been the most rewarding project I’ve ever produced and engineered given my childhood affinity for the game and its’ memorable soundtrack. The underlying goal with Hero Muzik Vol. II was to showcase the breadth of amazing music and musicians featured.” – K-Murdock

Fans will appreciate hearing their favorite Chrono Trigger melodies slowed down, chopped up, and re-arranged, offering a new spin on Yasunori Mitsuda’s most popular compositions. Hero Muzik Vol. II offers several instant classics, including a catchy ode to Lucca called “Big Brains” featuring Sammus, a touching narration from Magus and his younger self, Janus, as they describe the troubles of the Kingdom of Zeal from their unique perspectives and worry for the safety of their sister in “Schala & I,” and a smooth closer featuring Richie Branson.

<a href="http://neosonix.bandcamp.com/album/hero-muzik-vol-ii">Hero Muzik Vol. II by K-Murdock</a>

Hero Muzik Vol. II‘s track list is as follows:
1. Chronos (Crono)
2. Timeline (Marle)
3. Big Brains (Lucca)
4. Robo
5. I Got A Form (Spekkio)
6. A Change of Scenery (Frog)
7. Focus Management (Magus)
8. Arm’s Length (Ayla)
9. Schala & I (Schala and Zeal)
10. Remember it All (Lavos)
11. The Gurus of Meaning (Belthasar, The Guru of Reason)
12. Bring Crono Back (Gaspar, the Guru of Time)
Hero Muzik Vol. II follows up the original Hero Muzik album, which was a tribute to Nobuo Uematsu’s soundtrack to Final Fantasy VI. Hero Muzik Vol. II is released in collaboration with Random Beats Music, Mega Ran’s music label aimed at showcasing some of the biggest names in nerd core and chip hop.

Source: Scarlet Moon Productions
Doujin, Game Music

Celebrate 21 Years of Chrono Trigger with Chronology Jazz Tribute Album

August 23, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Yesterday marked the 21st anniversary of the American release of Square’s beloved time-traveling JRPG, Chrono Trigger. Now that Chrono Trigger is legal to drink here in the states, the good folks at Overclocked Remix decided to throw it a party; in the form of a jazz tribute album! Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger features eight tracks from the Overclocked Jazz Collective; a group featuring artists such as Nostalvania, DrumUltima and the project’s own director, Dylan “Wiesty” Wiest.

Through some fluke, I was able to assemble my own “dream team” of musicians and arrangers on OC ReMix who all shared a passion for jazz and video game music. I felt Chrono Trigger would be an ideal candidate for our first release given the game’s quickly approaching 20th anniversary and the fact that Mitsuda’s music lends itself so well to jazz and improvisation. The musicians and artists on this album have put in countless hours of practice and recording to produce an album which I think sounds authentic and natural. Jazz is a social music best captured in the moment… and while the production process of this album was anything but “in the moment,” I think the album’s sound and cohesiveness will speak for itself. – Dylan Wiest, Chronology Project Director

This marks the second album Overclocked Remix has produced in tribute to Chrono Trigger; the first being Chrono Symphonic in 2006.

You can download the entire Chronology album for free on several mirrors hosted on their OCRemix website. Between this and the Chronicles of Time mega album from earlier this year, Chrono Trigger and it’s gorgeous soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda is definitely getting the love it rightfully deserves.
Game Music

Hear Yasunori Mitsuda’s Latest in Edge of Eternity

May 18, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Hear Yasunori Mitsuda’s Latest in Edge of Eternity Share this

Last March the French team at Midgar Studio broke their $130,000 Kickstarter goal and officially brought legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda onto their project, Edge of Eternity. You might be able to guess by the studio’s name alone that Edge of Eternity is an indie love letter to classic Japanese RPGs.

That makes Mitsuda an especially important contributor as he’s provided the music for classics in the genre like Chrono Trigger and Xenogears as well as more modern offerings like Shadow Hearts and Soul Sacrifice.

Over a year later, Midgar Studio is ready to reveal some of the work that Mitsuda and sound designer Cedric Menendez have created with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra in Slovakia. Above you can check out a painfully brief clip from the recording session and hear a few of Mitsuda’s 12 themes and compositions for the game.

Midgar Studio also released a longer video from the game itself. Set against Active Time Battles and glowing special effects, the music is perfectly fitting for a Square inspired RPG and does a lot to amp up the work-in-progress footage.