ReMix:Final Fantasy VI "Following Forgotten" 3:33

By Patrick Burns

Arranging the music of one song...

"The Mines of Narshe"

Primary Game: Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES), music by Nobuo Uematsu

Posted 2013-08-12, evaluated by djpretzel


Patrick Burns' "Rare Respite" from Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business was a highlight of the album for me, and is a track I revisit often. There's a comfort and warmth to that arrangement that just make it a very welcoming, pleasing piece of music for almost any occasion. His take on 'Narshe' from Balance and Ruin is a fundamentally different beast; displaying substantial versatility, this ambient ReMix has a far more textural emphasis, and creates an unsettling, tentative atmosphere. He writes:

""The Mines of Narshe" always struck me as an incredibly moody tune. It's got a jazzy swing, Locrian elements, mysterious mine sounds - it's just weird and nice. When I started creating this remix, I had been listening to a lot of Machinarium's soundtrack, which is also a somewhat left-field kind of beautiful. So, I tried transporting the spaced-out, ambient nature of that soundtrack on to "Mines of Narshe." "Following Forgotten" is the result! It's made mostly with stock Logic Pro, some EWQLSO strings, a few FX samples, and lots of reverb/delay. My only regret is that I didn't make it longer. Serving suggestion: listen to this at a lonely, patient, low-lit time of your day."

Good advice, and it's also interesting to hear that this approach was directly influenced by another game soundtrack. Wondrous, exploratory, and filled with shimmering, resonating, and reverberating textures, listening to this mix is the aural equivalent of walking into a giant cavern filled with all manner of rare, bioluminescent flora & fauna, each revealing a discrete, alien beauty upon inspection. If they did a gritty reboot of The Goonies, it's the type of music that would perfectly capture a more serious sense of spelunking wonderment & awe. zircon writes:

"I have a soft spot for any sort of atmospheric or ambient music: anything with airy pads, guitars swirling in reverb, jazzy harmonies, and shimmering textures. I've also been a huge fan of Patrick's work since I heard his Donkey Kong Land mix in 2006. As a result, this is one of my favorite arrangements on all of Balance and Ruin - it does an amazing job of immersing the listener in the misty, melancholic feeling prevalent at the beginning of the game. The sound design is fantastic, incorporating not just generic "warm" synth timbres, but also acoustic elements, bell tones, and twinkling effects to fill up the entire spectrum. On the other hand, the instrumentation is never too dense, and Patrick always manages to evoke a desolate mood throughout."

Agreed; there's a great blend of plucked, scraped, hammered, & blown attack transients that dot the evolving soundscape, and again I'd make the biological comparison to a safari, sighting different species along the way. Fascinating, enveloping stuff.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 5 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
avatar
nitrozsz
on 2015-12-21 14:54:09

Very cryptic, and mysterious. Makes the Narshe mines seem way more intimidating than they originally were. It’s slow, foreboding, and does a great job capturing that ominous feeling you get when exploring unknown territory.

avatar
Crulex
on 2013-08-13 11:01:14

Ooh, man, this is some mysterious stuff. Gets to that nice, almost spooky kind of ambiance quite a few times, and yet there is a cool sense of wonder to it. Perfect for mines or dim caves filled with not so dim jewels or some vivid image like that. I love it.

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DimeTower
on 2013-08-13 00:37:20

Argle nails it. This kind of lost confusion and wonder, tinged with sadness, brings to mind the theme of Chrono Trigger's broken, windswept future.

Where am I...?

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Argle
on 2013-08-12 19:03:52

This was a great deviation from the usual Narshe-jazz arrangements (not that there's anything wrong with that). Sounds like you're lost in an ethereal dream. It makes me want to do an ambient arrangement of something.

avatar
Liontamer
on 2013-08-12 15:17:10

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"The Mines of Narshe"

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File Information


Name:
Final_Fantasy_6_Following_Forgotten_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,446,387 bytes
MD5:
10a4fe26ac85edf5816f2ebab98e9209
Bitrate:
201Kbps
Duration:
3:33

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