The Man...The Myth...The Legend
We all know who this man is, I'd hope--especially if you're as much of an avid (*cough*...nerd...) fan of Square(Enix)-based RPGs as I am! I grew up on these games, remembering my very first to be Final Fantasy IV for the SNES way back when. . . I played them all up to about XII (kinda skipped X / X-2 and played XV), and I had so many memorable adventures, and met so many wonderful and loving friends on their critically-acclaimed MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. If you have played the games, you know. Their soundtracks are always so breathtaking, so diverse, and so emotionally-charged--most, if not all, penned by the mighty hand from this man's eclectic mind. He's got his own band, (The Black Mages), he's ingrained himself in many of our childhood memories for such fantastic music, AND...TODAY IS HIS BIRTHDAY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NOBUO UEMATSU!
And to celebrate his 64th birthday, the trailer dropped as well today for the album I am proudly a part of:
SeeDs of Pandora: "Inspired by Final Fantasy VIII"
Sixty-nine (yes, 69, haha!) tracks! Almost 5 HOURS worth of content, spanning a 4-disc set named after the Gardens/Areas in-game (Balamb, Trabia, Galbadia, and Lunatic Pandora), each with their own unique, thematic spin to the songs on the disc!
I am a newcomer, to both OverClocked Remix's community and to participating in album-projects as a whole (it's not only my first album to present my own work on, but also in doing collaboration pieces where I've done both arrangements with other remixers and incorporating live instruments!)--however, I'm exceedingly glad to see this project come alive and to fruition, and my hope is that others stick around to enjoy the fruits of labor and/or spread the word! FWIW: the three songs from the game I had done were: Premonition, Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec, and The Extreme (and yeah...I still cannot believe I managed 3 tracks to be featured here, all on separate discs!) I will post the mastered versions of those remixes directly on here when I get a hold of them / on the album's actual release date!
Currently, I am unsure if there will be physical copies of this to buy, but this will be digitally available (links are in the description/YT video above!) I believe the site this will be hosted on has a lot to give as well, from remixer/artist commentary, to some background history on Final Fantasy VIII, so check it out when the time comes! FF8 is certainly an underrated-gem (which some people refer to as the "black sheep") in the sphere of Final Fantasy games, but it truly deserved its mark and celebration in history here.
I am very excited in being a part of this opportunity! Please enjoy the trailer, lots of love and a shoutout to the artists and directors on the album, who made this possible, and to Nobuo Uematsu himself--for without him, none of this would be possible, and we wouldn't have these beautiful pieces to make such inspirational remixes from!
*As a note: OCRemix-hosted aside, please keep on the lookout and give this one a shot to support those who made the dream come true (album was in a state of limbo before the new directors took up the mantle to get it done), and support those who put in the graft n' grind to get those fresh 69-tracks on the (virtual) airwaves! If you'd rather skip this, that's OK too, I personally just wanted to put this out there for the sake of the artists on this, not simply to spread the word. IMO, they deserve the spotlight, especially since there's almost as many newcomers to the VGM-remixing scene as a whole on this as much as there are veterans of the field (ex: Audio Mocha, bLiNd, and Rebecca E Tripp, to name a few.) I understand that some might read this and instantly get soured because of it being OCR-related, but hopefully that, end-and-of-itself, won't turn the blind-eye to give this a spin and support fellow musicians regardless of who's got it on which website or under whose namesake. . . If this was done through Pixel Mixers, GameChops, or any other of the big VGMRC peeps, I'd do the same nonetheless.
Anyways...enjoy! I usually don't do big announcements or much on my NG blog...sooooo...I figured, why the hell not? XD
♥ Love you all. Peace, have a good day, and I look forward to many more years of churning out hot bangers with you fab folks. ♥
(Album is Due to be Released - Late Spring 2023 [~ End of April])