ReMix:Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers "Shadow Hunter" 8:23

Our month of OC ReMix newcomers ain't over! MusicallyInspired debuted last year with a King's Quest arrangement that was part of a compilation album organized by Space Quest Historian. It looks like that submission may have been the proverbial bait on the hook, because we've now got the OCR debut of none other than SQH, Troels Pleimert! Troels, as part of the duo Error 47 with mixing/mastering engineer Jon Paul Sapsford, arranged this dark industrial/EDM piece as part of their recent Gabriel Knight tribute album that earned kudos from the original composer and also secured a physical release, as noted by the arranger:

"I hereby submit my remix of the main theme from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. It was created for a remix album of GK1 music entitled Synths of the Fathers. The album was crowdfunded for a vinyl release on Qrates with the support and encouragement of the original composer, Robert Holmes."

In comments taken from the album's vinyl listing on Qrates, Robert Holmes himself gave the Synths of the Fathers project a thumbs-up on musical ingenuity alongside his coveted seal of approval:

"As a man who has way too many synths myself, I have a deep love for the endless possibilities and lovely energy they can create. If it had been possible back in the days of GK1, I certainly would have done some of that music on true synths. All of this makes this collection and treatment of the music even more of a pleasure for me. I'm very proud of the music from the GK games, and to see it revisited with such passion and care, along with a healthy dose of newly injected perspective and creativity, is a true joy! Add to this the ability to enjoy it on vinyl and have it hopefully reach a new audience, and I'm beyond thrilled. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have!"

A nice treat to finally welcome the Gabriel Knight franchise into the OCR catalog as well, especially with such an expansive version of the original main theme. We hope SQH's submission here also helps this great score reach new listeners' ears and make them go down the GK rabbit hole! Most of the judges, unamimous in their approval, had some comments about the track length and 3:17's 4/4 section sounding comparatively thin in contrast to the dense and pulse-pounding opening and closing sections bookending the piece, best summarized by judge MindWanderer:

"Despite clocking in at over 8 minutes, there are a lot of original ideas here. There's really only one repeated section (2:02-2:54 and 7:00-end), though it's a long one. But overall, the whole track is on a really slow burn: the intro runs until 0:52, followed by another build-up that goes until 1:48; the real meat of the arrangement doesn't start until 2:02! Some entire remixes aren't that long. The bridge in particular, 4:12-5:48, sounds great but is a whole minute and a half of basically the same thing.

That said, each of those long sections does have a progressive nature, and is far more than just a loop. They're longer than they need to be, but they don't really demand to be cut."

I was on board for the slow burn, and it's a testament to Space Quest Historian's skills that he was able to retain interest throughout, as 8+ minutes often turns into a musical sin around these parts. There's an intense pace that COULD get overlong if left in the wrong hands, but SQH's well-timed changes in the textural density and smooth transitions of the time signatures made that concern a moot point from where I sat. While also giving credit to the whole 90s vibe of the piece, judge prophetik's favorite area had to be the initial 7/8 segment:

"there's lots of additive stuff going on in the first few minutes, and it sounds great, grungy in all the right places. i love the build at 1:55 and the subsequent change at 2:02 with the organish pad swelling under it - so good. the bell started to feel a bit old here (maybe using a real bell sample instead of pitching the one you used up and down) but the entire 'chorus' is meaty and sounds good."

Though I didn't have any problems justifying the length, I did initially get hung up on the 4/4 portion sounding "too thin". That said, this piece is a solid example of how wearing a judge's hat while actively listening for critiques is observably different than casually listening to the piece as a fan. Once the judgement concluded in the track's favor and I spun this as a mere VGM fan in an enjoyment mindset, any nitpicks just seemed to melt away within this extremely strong & creative arrangement approach that fleshed out the sound palette of the original song and, in my opinion, justified the run time as well (particularly because of the expansive arrangement of the 4/4 section).

When it comes to influential PC game companies, it's impossible to have a conversation *without* invoking Sierra. It's all the more special to have Gabriel Knight formally in the OCR fold, brought to us by a true Sierra super-fan like Space Quest Historian. :-) He and Jon Paul make a great team, so (along with their other works) be sure to check out Error 47's Synths of the Fathers album, whether digital or vinyl, and enjoy all of their fresh takes on Robert Holmes' Gabriel Knight tunes!