ReMix:Chrono Cross "When Two Worlds Meet" 3:51

It's a double-dose of Jorito (Jorrith Schaap), as we start the week with two album collabs, beginning with this Chrono Cross clash & meld of styles as Earth Kid (Natalya May) lends her folk & multi-instrumental talents to a catchy electronic foundation from Mr. Schaap, off of Chronopolis: Music Inspired by Chrono Cross:

• Jorito - arrangement, vocals, lyrics
• Earth Kid - arrangement, vocals, Celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, Irish bouzouki, soprano recorder, tenor recorder

"At the very end of the Chrono Cross project, Brad hinted that he could use another track for the faster disc of the album. As it happened, Earth Kid and I had been brainstorming on Discord about a possible collab where we could combine together her folk sounds with the electronic world. This seemed like an excellent excuse to give it a shot! After some discussion, we settled on a rough workflow with me focusing on arrangement, percussion, and bass and electronic sounds in general, and her on live performances on her folk instruments and overall mixing, and both of us chipping in where needed.

The track started off with a bare-bones piano arrangement from Earth Kid that I messed around with. There was a bit of "Marbule" in there in 4/4 that instantly inspired me to add some drum & bass vibes to it, but the other parts were in different time signatures that I struggled to get working in a good way with electronic stuff. After some discussion and experimentation, I finally settled on putting it all in 4/4, but with some swing applied as a nod to the original 6/8 and 2/2 time signatures. From there, the arrangement got fleshed out rather quickly, and when Earth Kid replaced my scratch MIDI with her arsenal of instrumental and vocal performances, the track really came to life. With the swing applied to the track, it has some bouncy goodness to it that I really dig, and, with the interesting contrast between the folk and electronic elements as well as an arrangement that keeps things moving, I am hoping you will be bobbing your head to the song as much as we did!"

The wubs threw me for a bit of a loop, as the rest of the synthetic accompaniment has more of a late 90's dance vibe, but when you throw in some vocoded robovoice, it crosses over into "quirky" territory, and such concerns are no longer material :) Natalya adds:

"This arrangement was an exercise in striking a balance with the contrasting genres we merged, and giving each element its time in the sun. I contributed vocals and performances on the Celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, Irish bouzouki, and soprano and tenor recorders. It was a fun challenge to record, edit, mix, and put together this homage to two charming cities, and I feel that duality was a prominent theme: Termina and Marbule, Home World and Another World, folk music and electronic music. I hope you enjoy listening to this song as much as we enjoyed making it!"

Chronopolis had a lot of organic material mixed in with synthetic elements, and I think album director & newly-anointed judge prophetik music did a great job steering the aesthetic in this regard:

"I love eclectic combinations of genres, so when Jorito mentioned that he'd been thinking of an electronic/folk hybrid with Earth Kid, I just was so excited to see what they'd come up with. As expected from two talented musicians, they knocked it out of the park! I particularly love the contrast between the robovox and Earth Kid's floating vocals in the second half of the song."

Judges were unanimous; MindWanderer sums it up rather appropriately:

"I liked this as part of the album eval - at least, after it had been cleaned up a bit - and I still do. Earth Kid's dulcimer work is superb, the vocals are a beautiful touch, the electronica fits in well now, and the beat is infectious. It's quirky and delightful."

Indeed; playful, even. A lot of genre mashups tend to end up on the more serious side, but this feels like a fun, unreserved, creative outpouring. Jorrith's penchant for unorthodox arranging makes everything spontaneous & fun, and Natalya's instrumental talent & technique make everything come alive. Good stuff!