ReMix: Final Fantasy VI 'Cantata for Dancing: I. Mors ego sum mortis'

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Epic. Robson teams up with newcomer Derek Oren for an FF6 ReMix unlike anything you've heard, featuring the most choral emphasis of any submission I can think of offhand. Mr. Robson writes:

"It's been a while since my last submission, and this time I teamed up one Derek Oren - who's a great sample artist way beyond my abilities with that sort of thing - in order to create a multi-movement cantata based on everyone's favourite Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy 6."

Derek writes:

"Working with Jeremy on this project was a huge honor. When we first started working on this project together I knew right away that with his composing, arranging talents and my sampling and editing skills we would produce something great. Most challenging part of this collaboration was getting the choir to blend with the orchestra. Once we got that taken care of it was a breeze. Both Jeremy and I hope that you enjoy the first movement of themes surrounding the character Kefka from Final Fantasy VI (my favorite)"

The choir pretty much dominates the entire piece, with a Latin lyric that gives the necessary timbral variety. It's wonderfully tricky to get this sort of natural language feel for even a few words, so putting together an entire lyric must have been a good bit of work, and in this instance the arrangement demands it and succeeds because of it. Without actual words, just "oohs" and "aahs", this would be an entirely different and lesser composition. With this added dimension, it's a serious, dramatic, and uber-compelling work. This is important from a mix evaluation perspective as well, since other aspects of the arrangement stick fairly close to the source material, which is of course fairly familiar to most. Mr. Oji writes:

"For the most part, the arrangement held fast to the structure of the original, but the writing is nicely expanded and personalized with epic-sounding spices."

There's no denying that this was a very effective collaboration; Robson's always had orchestral composition chops, but Derek's contribution of more refined sampling skills, and in this case particularly the impressive choral work, adds icing to an already satisfying cake. The result is a breathtaking, epic take on Kefka that plays to the strengths of both artists and channels cinematic grandeur and classical power in a cauldron of choral colors.

― djpretzel