ReMix: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 'A Link To The Piano'

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Lost power for half a day yesterday - flipped all the circuit breakers, still nothing, but all my neighbors were hooked up a-okay. Turned out one of the main lines to my house is gimp, they need to dig to fix it, and in the meantime I get a small thermonuclear device in my backyard as some sort of temporary measure. Also saw m.o.v.e. live at Anime USA, which, while the acoustics sucked and the lighting was weak, was still a good show. We hung out around back and pretended to talk to the security guy so I could at least give the keyboardist the props he deserved. So, picking back up again, we've got yet another Zelda 3 ReMix from yet another newcomer to OCR, with Zoola (aka John Torkington) sending in a solo piano medley to keep Tepid's piece company. For a change, I'm gonna start right off with a quote from Brandon:

"I’ve thought a lot about this mix. Listening casually this mix is amazingly expressive, soothing and unimposing in all the right ways. A careful listen however reveals that this mix is expressive, soothing, unimposing but really quiet. Honestly though, I think there is too large a disparity in volume between the loudest sections and the quietest sections. That’s not too terrible a transgression considering all that there is to like about this mix.

The selection and composition of source material is a real highlight. The themes are made to flow seamlessly together and the arrangement, though conservative in spots, is creative. The performance is generally nice as well. My largest gripe there is that the accented chords during 0:47-1:19 are a bit harsh and jerky. The second part of “opening demo” from 1:20-1:43 is handled much better. Nice resolution with the epic overworld theme."

Ditto. That's pretty much what I have to say, particularly on the rather low recording level and at 0'59" specifically the jerkiness Brandon alludes to. The strength of the arrangement is not, however, in its articulation or prevalence of technically impressive passages, but rather the progression, harmonic changes, and very fluid, pensive fashion John's weaved everything together. It's a somber, dark, rich tapestry of themes that have been creatively homogenized, and the tone ranges from stark, to intimate, to tentative, to dramatic, and back again. Larry Oji prognosticates:

"Out of the bevy of source tunes involved, I was particularly impressed by the arrangement of "Princess Zelda's Rescue" into a subtle, melancholy feel. The whole package was well put together and set a good mood. And, as our community is full of overly enthusiastic fans, I expect someone in the ReView thread to note how they cried to this."

Somewhat different style of solo piano arrangement here, more chord-heavy; there are some minor mastering/production issues, but this is still an evocative and deep composition and a mature first submission from Zoola.

― djpretzel