Sound Current: Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura

By Jeriaska . April 12, 2008 . 9:58pm

The music of Square Enix composer Yoko Shimomura has been featured on several arranged albums over the years.  Parasite Eve was treated to trance and techno remixes, songs from Kingdom Hearts were performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, and Live A Live received a limited edition mini-arranged album at the time of its release.  What has made Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura a celebrated event is the album's compilation of various songs from over the course of the composer’s career thus far.  As these selections demonstrate, the musician has over time been both a powerhouse of energetic soundtracks and a designer of heartfelt melodies that have tugged at the heartstrings of game players.  While diverse in its offerings, the nagging question of just what contributions the composer made during her tenure at Capcom remains unanswered.  The orchestral album leaves out Super Mario RPG and defers to the upcoming cell phone game "The Third Birthday" to revisit the music of Parasite Eve.  Subtitling the album “The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura” is a misnomer, but it is nevertheless a remarkable excursion into the past, present and future of Shimomura's abundantly enthusiastic approach to videogame music.

 

 

The selections of drammatica, chosen by the artist and arranged for the orchestra by Natsumi Kameoka, concern themselves with expressions of heightened emotion. The concert rises in intensity from silence with the anticipatory piano melody that introduces Legend of Mana’s title theme.  The song is set in motion by the urgent tempo of strings and wind instruments.  The composition is easily translated from its in-game setting as the backdrop to the opening full-motion video sequence, a symphonic piece of finite duration.  More inventive is the treatment of the lighthearted and carefree town theme of Hometown Domino, whose xylophone percussion evokes the fantasy atmosphere of the Mana universe.  The orchestra transitions after the theme has been defined to a rendition of the song “Where the Heart Is.”  Composed of similar instruments, and in contrast to the unearthly electronic sounds featured on the original soundtrack, the brief medley harmoniously brings together two of the fantasy game's whimsical themes.

 

The stirring choral theme of "Destati" is one song that has enjoyed orchestral performances before and remains largely undifferentiated from its original source material here on drammatica.   "The 13th Anthology" continues the grave mood of the selections from the Kingdom Hearts series, beginning with a suspenseful lead in on piano and strings.   The  thematic presence of bombastic fight track "Lord of the Castle" from Chain of Memories ensures that the entire series thus far is represented.  The fierce pace of the chimes that ushers in the upbeat tempo is an effective touch that helps evoke the kinetic energy of the game series' dramatic action sequences. 

 

The appearance of “The Other Promise” on the album is the biggest surprise from the series.  The theme is carried by a flute melody and strikes a comparatively somber tone.  A haunting female chorus joins in, elevating the dramatic intensity of the piece.  Of the songs on drammatica, these three are perhaps most faithful to the games from which they are adapted, and a reminder of the gravity underlying the Organization XIII plotline.  "Twinkle Twinkle Holidays" represents the more lighthearted and mercurial side of the series.  The theme from Holiday Town is treated to a yuletide atmosphere with sleigh bells chiming, and leisurely gives way to the soaring Neverland song, where the orchestra's sound resolves into a gradual diminution of major chords on strings.

 

 

Live a Live is by far the most obscure of Shimomura’s work for Square, in part due to its having never been localized, and also because it is among the most idiosyncratic role-playing titles this side of Hanjuku Hero.  The game struck a fine balance between bizarre, hallucinatory parody and solidly constructed plot progressions, chock-a-block with surprises.  Shimomura matched that degree of creativity with her score, drawing on numerous musical genres. Those who have had the chance to play Live A Live know that the game is a pastiche of genres ranging from spaghetti Western to interstellar sci-fi.  For drammatica, Shimomura has chosen the segment taking place in ancient China from among the multiplicity of musical categories.  Hence the name of the track  “The Bird Flies in the Sky, The Fish Swims in the River”  appears entirely in Chinese characters.  The one song alone cannot quite speak to the variety of the game title, especially when compared with “Battlisimo,”  the no-holds-barred Live A Live power medley from over ten years ago. Cello and violin melody “Forgotten Wings” is among the most tame numbers from the project, and was previously arranged at the time of the soundtrack.  Originally appearing during the stage set in a Medieval fantasy kingdom patterned after Dragon Quest, the song conveys solemn treks across ice-capped mountains and is among the most refined and elegant of Shimomura's compositions. 

 

Front Mission, the tactical science fiction title taking place on a near-future war-ravaged earth, has never before been officially remixed.  The force and imagination underlying the score by Shimomura and Noriko Matsueda is communicated by “Take the Offensive,” a skillful achievement by orchestrator Kameoka.  The song manages both to retain the anxious excitement of the battlefield theme while incorporating a brief aside that casts the same melody in a calm and introspective light.  “Manifold Irons” dispays an effective new take on the original composition, pitting the robust melody played by roaring brass instruments against the swift rhythms of the hurried violin accompaniment.  The two songs are yet another reminder of how ambitious the Super Famicom scores for the Front Mission series were, and what a misfortune it was for them to have been denied an English-language localization upon their initial release. 

 

“Colored Earth” from Legend of Mana can be contrasted to the two other entries from the title by the swift martial drumbeat that places its mood firmly in the context of combat.  Midway through the theme there is an extended sequence where the turbulent energy of the strings subsides and a violin solo becomes the sole focus of attention.  The shift from full orchestra to solo performances lends a subtle texture to the arrangement, a welcome new addition to the song’s emotional range.  “City of Flickering Destruction” is the final selection from the game.  A spare tune with solemn emotional overtones, the performance is effective in providing a consistent mood throughout. 

 

In contrast to Legend of Mana, the tactical strategy take on Seiken Densetsu centers on explosive action and intrigue. “Tango Appassionata ~The Way the Heart Is~” begins with a brief bandonion intro and the jangling of castanets.  The sense of dance implied by the title is informed by the swift rhythm of the instruments, which is extended beyond the length of the anime sequence that precedes the game.  Once the song has built up its momentum, it ends swiftly with the distinctive accordion sound of the air reed instrument lingering afterward.  The ending theme “Tale Told by the Wind” serves as the last of Shimomura’s familiar tracks on the album and bids farewell in an extended series of aural cues denoting reminiscence and goodbyes. Shimomura has spoken on the subject of her fond feelings for the series, and prior to Legend of Mana she had expressed interest in contributing to a fantasy title, which she felt would bring out a side of her music that had previously been unexplored.  Her dedication to the World of Mana series is evident by its noticeable presence across five songs on this project.

 

 

A bonus track for an album that really needs no extra incentives to argue for its significance, the lush atmosphere of "Somnus" from Final Fantasy Versus XIII fits in with the rest of the retrospective.  The grand orchestral style carried by opera vocals sung in Italian are subtly featured in the Tokyo Game Show trailer and go some way toward promising that the first outing in the Final Fantasy series for the composer will be a dark narrative in the vein of Parasite Eve.  For those who have been waiting with anticipation for Shimomura’s gifts as a composer of tragedies to again be put to the test, this brief but elegant theme offers some evidence to suggest that the Very Best of Yoko Shimomura may well unfold in the years ahead.

 

Images courtesy of Square Enix and VGMdb.

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