Doujin
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Doujin, Game Music, Miscellaneous
VGM Band Spotlight: Moiré Effect
The video game music scene is a vast one, with a growing community that continues to bolster itself regularly. Certainly with events whose core is centered around video game music, such as MAGFest and Gamer’s Rhapsody, as well as the niche industry of game music expanding through both fan projects and composer collaborations, new names pop up in the scene regularly. This is especially true with new performers and bands that dedicate themselves to the celebration of video game music.
Enter Moiré Effect. What is Moiré Effect? Well, ask a visualist and it’s the spacing effect when two sets of patterns are laid on top of one another. So, what does this have to do with video game music? According to the band, it didn’t start out with a dedication to games music and beyond.
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Doujin, Game Music
The Travelers VGM Release Prelude to a Fantasy EP
April 4, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on The Travelers VGM Release Prelude to a Fantasy EP Share this
The video game music cover band The Travelers VGM, who focus on arrangements done in a European folk style, has released a tribute EP to celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series titled Prelude to a Fantasy.
The original Final Fantasy, composed by Nobuo Uematsu and released on December 18th, 1987 for the Famicom, kickstarted a franchise of RPG fantasy games that continues to go strong to this day and has a powerful legacy and a strong fan following in both its game style and is music.
“The music of all the early Final Fantasy games heavily influenced the beginning of my unique composition style. Their lush but powerful melodies still inspire my music to this day. I hope to continue to create beautiful covers and original pieces of music based on those wonderful game scores. I want the Travelers VGM to keep exploring the high quality composition tradition seen in both old and new Final Fantasy soundtracks.” – Masha Lepire, Co-producer
Prelude to a Fantasy, produced by Josh Barron with assistance from Lepre and fellow co-producer Ian Martyn, features five tracks that offer tribute to specific songs within the Final Fantasy series, including franchise mainstay “Prologue”, which began with the first game and has persisted through the series within its three decade tenure. Certainly the music of the Final Fantasy series has inspired many past and present composers to enter into the realm of video game music.
“Final Fantasy music got me to pay attention to game music. My first was Final Fantasy VII and then after that I have been hooked on game music. It even made me want to become a composer. I am who I am today because of listening to Uematsu-san’s music back when I was thirteen years old. It is a pleasure to be able to revisit the classics and give them unique arrangements and performances!” – Josh Barron, Producer
Prelude to a Fantasy can be purchased for about $5 on The Traveler’s VGM Bandcamp and iTunes as well as streaming on Google Play and Spotify. You can check out the album’s full credits on their Materia Collective page.
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Doujin, Game Music
“Hero of Time” Legend of Zelda OoT Album Released by Materia Collective
March 29, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on “Hero of Time” Legend of Zelda OoT Album Released by Materia Collective Share this
Even though The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has recently released to critical acclaim, it’s its Nintendo 64 predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that seems to be getting a lot of love lately. The first 3D Zelda game is seeing much in the way of tributes (Its 20th anniversary comes next year), especially when it comes to the game’s soundtrack. (I Know Super Guitar Bros are working on an album as we speak.)
Argued to be one of the best Zelda soundtracks of the franchise, Materia Collective has decided to pull out all the stops with their massive Ocarina of Time orchestral project, Hero of Time.
Beginning as a crowd-funded project on Kickstarter, Hero of Time is directed by Eric Buchholz (POKÉMON: SYMPHONIC EVOLUTIONS) and features recordings from the 64-piece Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. It also features a slew of arrangers and accompanying performers.
With Hero of Time, we sought to create a single, cohesive experience that weaves all of the complex underlying themes of the game, like impermanence and mortality, with Koji Kondo’s timeless melodies that have become as iconic as the game itself. The orchestration takes an ‘east-meets-west’ approach, with the inclusion of taiko ensembles, eastern woodwinds, and harmonies found prevalent in Japanese film and game scores. – Eric Buchholz, Hero of Time Producer/Orchestrator
The album is available on Bandcamp in digital, CD and CD Limited Edition formats and streaming on Spotify. Alongside the release, a 2xLP vinyl release will be made available on iam8bit in the near future for the true LoZ music enthusiast. You can check out the full album track listing and credits on the Materia Collective album page.
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Doujin, Events, Game Music
PAX East 2017 Review: Concerts & JAMspace
March 17, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on PAX East 2017 Review: Concerts & JAMspace Share this
Despite treacherous weather, PAX East 2017 went off without much issue this past weekend in Boston, MA. The expo show featured the usual accoutrements; a huge expo floor for showing games, a console and gaming room, several panels featuring a wide variety of topics on video games and gaming in general, and of course the all-day JAMspace and late-night concerts. There was a wide assortment of acts playing this year, from rock to metal to classical and jazz fusion, and thus PAX-goers had pick of the litter in terms of their musical entertainment.
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Chip Music, Doujin, Events, Game Music
PAX East 2017 Performances & Music Fun
Just as we did for last month’s PAX South, we’re giving you the rundown of what you can expect to see from a game music and audio standpoint at PAX East 2017 next week in Boston. Some new and some returning musical performances shall be gracing the main stage concerts, as well as other tidbits you can check out through the event.
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Doujin, Game Music
Materia Collective Presents The Travelers European Folk VGM Arrangement Album
February 6, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Materia Collective Presents The Travelers European Folk VGM Arrangement Album Share this
The fine folks of Materia Collective present The Travelers, a supergroup of some of the most passionate performers and arrangers seeking to bring a unique acoustic experience unlike anything before. The Travelers cover VGM favorites and obscure selections in European folk arrangements of various styles from Celtic, Nordic, and Slavic traditions. Their membership includes players of a broad variety of instruments from many different parts of the world, featuring members from the Materia Collective, Triforce Quartet, and Tetrimino.
Produced by Josh Barron and Masha Lepire with art by Val Choung, The Travelers album features arrangements from Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts 2, Romancing SaGa 2 and more. For those who love Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Millennial Fair” and his Xenogears CREID album you will be treated to something that embraces the source yet presents something fresh in a live acoustic setting.
The 15-track album can be purchased now on Bandcamp, Spotify and iTunes.
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Doujin, Game Music
ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed Now Available
January 24, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed Now Available Share this
If you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy spinoff games and their music, then Materia Collective has you covered. ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed is a 63-track mega album devoted to the music of Final Fantasy Tactics and pays tribute to the game’s composers, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.
Final Fantasy Tactics was released on the Playstation in 1997 in Japan (1998 in North America) as a spin-off to the main Final Fantasy series. Deviating from the roleplaying of the main series, Tactics instead relied on tactical RPG gameplay. The game’s soundtrack was first released on two CDs by now-defunct DigiCube on June 21, 1997, and was re-released by Square Enix on March 24, 2006. ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed presents covers of the game’s music in a variety of styles with one hundred artists contributing, including John Robert Matz, Dale North, Doug Perry, Annie Rosen, Sean Schafianski, Laura Intravia, Jack Menhorn, Amanda Lepre and more.
“The Final Fantasy Tactics soundtrack was darker and more atmospheric than other Final Fantasy soundtracks. In some ways, that makes doing straight covers of the songs tricky, so it has been really amazing to hear the interpretations that arrangers have given each piece. Especially for the pieces where the original had an organic, open ended structure, it has been really cool to hear what arrangers have done.” – Stephen Robert Froeber, ProducerZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed is licensed and is now available for purchase on iTunes and streaming on Spotify
Disclosure: OSV writer Michael Hoffman is featured on ZODIAC as a contributing musician.
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