ReMix:Secret of Mana "Together We Will Stand" 3:29

From Secret of Mana: Resonance of the Pure Land, this next collab between Jorito & Eino Keskitalo is unrestrained joy, marrying rock, funk, chip, vocoders, and magic in a cathartic blast of creativity; the former writes:

"Eino was one of the very last people to claim a track and to check in. Eino and me have done quite a few collaborations already, and, since I liked what I was hearing and Eino was quite strapped for time, I offered to help out. The whole process reminded me of the compo tracks we did, it's a very organic workflow and cranking out an enjoyable track in just a few days with a crazy deadline breathing down your neck is pretty much what we're used to.

This time around, my contributions were mostly in production and making some arrangement changes, but I also was able to sneak in some extra parts to spice things up. The foundation that Eino laid was also a great bed to do some creative experiments. I mean, how often do you get the chance to act as Sage Joch and steal his lines from the game script AND get to work on that one single track where using bagpipes actually makes sense? Turned out rather fun and interesting and maybe a bit eccentric in a good way."

Just a bit ;) On the bagpipes, I'm not hearing the drone, just the melodic line, which is easier to integrate - sounds good! This has the feeling of raw creativity and just kinda running with ideas & making them work; spontaneous, but still polished & directed. Eino gives us a bullet-list sequence of events for the mix's formation:

"After the idea stage, the execution progressed as follows:

• figure out the parts on the guitar and bass
• realise its way too fast for my skill level and will require recording in tiny, tiny bits (f.e. four notes of an arp at the time)
• let this affect the arrangement, f.e. split the arp between two guitars
• make a mock-up of the arrangement structure with drums + chip sounds
• record guitar and bass in the tiny, tiny bits
• improvise some stuff
• forget to record some parts
• record some parts incorrectly despite first transcribing them correctly
• spend 3x more time for timing and pitch fixes than recording
• instead of re-recording (which I didn't have the opportunity for anyway), use the chip-style sounds to fill in for missing bits
• stretch out the arrangement via good ol' copy & paste, add a chip solo to vary things up, don't quite finish the ending
• send stuff to Jorito
• magic happens
• track is ready!

The particularly fun aspect of the process was that I sent a fairly dry and minimalistic track with drums, bass, guitars and a couple of simple synth tracks to Jorito, and he gives it a total maximisation make-over, including vocoded vocals and a bagpipe. Once everything was in place, the final round of mixing (which he executed, I just opined) to chisel out the excess and decide what should be the main feature of each part was quite fun and exciting. I think what emerged is a particularly fun, even joyous track that fits the original but puts it in a crazy overdrive mode."

Both of these guys are crazy-creative in their own unique ways, so I'm not surprised that the resulting collaboration was as genre-defying and overflowing with ideas; at times the density creates some clutter, but that's really the only thing judges picked up on. Jivemaster writes:

"Quite a busy track here, things kick off fairly suddenly with guitar and brass riffing. The groove developed over the course of the first minute of the track was gradual and well executed. 1:24’s vocoder break was great and unexpected. The subsequent synth solo and organ afterwards were a cute addition. 2:47 presents us with another solo, and a short vocoder section closes us out. The song feels like it crams in a large amount of content for the tidy duration."

Lastly, album co-director The Nikanoru writes:

"To me, the source for this track is a theme for the last moments of childhood for Randi before he makes the silly mistake of picking up a stupid, rusty knife at the base of a waterfall to cut some bushes down. Eino and Jorito's take on this source is a bombastic overload of chiptune, synth, electric guitar, drums, heavily modified vocals, and, yes, bagpipes. If this track was used in the same context, I'd say Randi, Elliott, and Timothy had some excellent adventures in Potos before all that trouble began!"

Indeed; fantastical, unbridled stuff that embraces the source & gives it a sweet shock of electrical/musical energy, blending styles, instruments, and moods to create something decidedly new. Excellent!