Skies of Arcadia - Delphinus & Contintent themes remix - "To The Horizon"
36Arrangement, production: Jorito
Violin, viola: Jay Kim (https://soundcloud.com/roninopf)
Cello: Keadrin Cain (https://twitter.com/KeadrinCain)
French horn, trombone, trumpet: John Stacy (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJohnStacy)
Flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet: Gamerofthewinds (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQFIzKI61fxibPgfPKeJQxw)
Oboe, english horn: Damian Nguyen (https://www.youtube.com/user/sanjuroboe)
Bassoon: Bassoonify (https://youtube.com/bassoonify)
Soprano, female choir: Lauren the Flute (https://www.youtube.com/user/selie22flute)
Harp, female choir: Earth Kid (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOhdqZa6K5TjIBESNVoDnUg)
Male choir: Bardic Knowledge (https://twitter.com/BardicKnowledge)
Snare drum: DrumUltimA (https://www.youtube.com/user/DougDrumUltimAPerry)
When Arcadia Legends album directors Darkflamewolf and Modus asked me if I was interested in remixing the airship theme of the game, I initially said no because of time constraints. When they didn’t give up and later shared a music clip where elements of each continent in the game were featured in the song, I started thinking it would be nice to incorporate these continent themes more completely than as just mere fly-by fragments. Little did I know that this ultimately would turn into a monster of a project with a runtime of over 13 minutes that would take me 8 months to complete, include collaborations from 10 performers, eat up close to 160 tracks in my DAW and give me a project file too big for my computer to actually handle. Ouch.
Given that this track contains not only the airship theme but also all the different continents in the game that meant there was a lot of music to work with. With so many different types of music, making things sound cohesive was definitely a concern. I was a bit hesitant at first to give this the orchestral treatment, given that the OST is fully orchestral too. I initially thought that it would be difficult to make this track different enough from the source material. After some more deliberation however, I quickly came to the conclusion that an orchestral track would be the only way I could actually pull this off in a consistent manner. With all the different tempos and time signatures, making things flow and transition well between the different parts without sounding too much like a medley was a tricky challenge, but I think it turned out pretty well. I also learned a lot of orchestrational and compositional things that I hope to apply in a new orchestral project.
I am immensely grateful for all the talented performers who were willing to give this a shot and join me on this crazy journey. A big shout out to Damian, Doug, Earth Kid, Gregory, Jay, John, Kaedrin, Michael, Lauren and Ryan; you really helped making this track come alive!
Please, sit back and take a trip back to the lands of Arcadia. Hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did!