ReMix: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance 'Behold the Winged Cathedral'

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Sam wrote a mini-opus in his original submission email, from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away:

"...this is arguably my favorite game soundtrack of all time. I don't say that lightly. I listen to A LOT of game music, and I don't listen to any of it for nostalgic reasons. I listen to it to study, just like I do with Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Bartok, Poulenc...... and all of them. I make no distinction in my mind. If I like a game music composer, I will get every one of their soundtracks through spc/psf/gsf blah blah blah or purchase.... and I mean every single one. With Soshiro Hokkai, there is only this one [and his 3 tracks from Aria of Sorrow: Black Moon, Premonition, and Dracula's Fate] BUT it somehow manages to possibly trump ALL of my other game soundtracks combined. The problem is many many many people hated this soundtrack and probably still do.

If this manages to make it on to the site, I'd like to ask a favor. What you did with Noriko Matsueda was so amazing, emboldening her name over and over. Seriously that was so great. Not only did it acknowledge that she composed the original, but it brought her in to the spotlight. Because Michiru Yamane wrote three songs from this soundtrack, her name shows up and I think because of her fame, people would be inclined to give her the credit, so if this does get accepted, it would be sooooo cool if you could do something similar for Soshiro Hokkai. OK!!! Enjoy!"

I wonder if Soshiro Hokkai dreams... What kind of man *is* Soshiro Hokkai? How much wood could Soshiro Hokkai chuck if Soshiro Hokkai could chuck wood? Is Soshiro Hokkai somewhere feeling lonely... or is someone loving him? These and many more questions might run through one's mind (or not) when listening to Shna's latest (posted) ReMix, from what's potentially his favorite game soundtrack, Harmony of Dissonance. Larry writes:

"Arrangement is all sorts of bueno, and if you check the source tune, you really see how it fits in Sam's style already. It actually sounds like something he could write if he was a composer for Gameboy Advance material, so this mix was a pleasing upgrade of sounds and extension of the compositional ideas of Hokkai's original."

This is more 'traditional' Shna, in that its sound palette is distinctly... non-traditional. The "rhythmically-spliced-Japanese-woman-talking" really brings the heat. Some of Shna's stuff reminds me (or vice-versa, who knows) of Hiromi, whom I recently checked out after reading about her in Keyboard Magazine. Instead of describing the overall piece or doing a play-by-play, I'd like to focus on one specific moment that struck me: at 3'42", right after coming out of a storm of breakbeats, Sam lets loose with a flurry of running arpeggios underneath a swirling, beautiful bed of pads, and it's literally a breathtaking juxtaposition. I think that's when his material works best - he does, after all, juxtapose a lot of unorthodox instruments together, and also from a sequencing perspective performs some unusual twists and turns. Often, these *can* seem jarring, though one gets used to that after a while. But occassionally, not through anything as random as trial-and-error but seemingly also not through anything as scientific as pure calculation and conscious intent, he creates extraordinarily striking transitions that are... singularities. You wouldn't find them anywhere else, and they're beautiful. Even if you only have a couple moments like that in a piece, it's worth raising some eyebrows elsewhere and elsewhen to accomplish. And no one can question Sam's dedication to his craft and appreciation for game music - we'll close with the postscript from his email:

"PS: If this makes it on to OCR and just ONE person likes it enough to check out the original soundtrack and that person gets anywhere near as much joy as I did from that soundtrack....... then my life purpose will have been fulfilled."

― djpretzel