ReMix: Wild Arms 'Visions of Kin'

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James George (known as Maestrodeclure back when he had his first mix posted) writes:

"The orchestration is deliberately minimalistic, except for the mid-section. Creating it was mostly a learning experience for me with my new hardware and software. I hope to create more complex mixes in the future. I think one WIP member used the word "intimate", which I think is the best description so far. Again, thank you for your consideration. "

Harp arpeggios that channel Uematsu's (in?)famous FF prelude intro the piece with a flowing string part and some oboe on melody, but things slow down around 0'50" as a harp cadenza of sorts leads into an arpeggiated piano pattern with tasteful, minimal percussion. When James alluded to more "complex" mixes above, I'd say that's a fair enough assessment - this isn't too rhythmically or compositionally intricate - but by the same token, simplicity can be beautiful, and this mix has moments, particularly when the ensemble strings come in with their slow attacks to flesh out the melody, that I'd say qualify. To me at least, the whole thing has a rather timely Christmas feel to it, with echoes of Silent Night and other tonally nocturnal, melodic pieces; I think you could put it on an orchestral xmas mix CD without incident. In fact, I just might. Larry says:

"Short and sweet, it seemed liked it wasn't gonna be too interpretive at first, but once James changed the rhythm up substantially at :52, I saw he was indeed planning on putting his own unique spin on the source.

Loved the small orchestra setting. You definitely achieved the intimate sound you were going for, with a nice full soundscape despite the small amount of instrumentation going on. Fairly organic-minded presentation overall; even when some of the samples weren't overly realistic sounding, they're sequenced and produced for a very natural result from the performance side.

Great job on this one James; good to see you back with another release here after so long. Beautiful atmosphere, sophisticated dynamics, and a very creative arrangement of Naruke's original material. Some people thought this sounded aimless. Some people also just don't get it. :-)"

Despite the terribly emasculating effect of the punctuating emoticon, I'd tend to agree with Mr. Oji's assessment. I wouldn't call the piece aimless; while it doesn't have razor-sharp focus and juggernaut momentum, it perambulates meaningfully, and sounds good doing it. James rejoins us after a 3+ years hiatus, just like NoppZ, and just like NoppZ, he returns in style.

― djpretzel