ReMix:Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals "Sapphire Oceans" 4:00

Archangel (Jaka Čibej) follows his Paladin's Quest mix from earlier this month with an inspirational, coastal cinematic/orchestral arrangement of Lufia II:

"Here we go, submission no. 12! An orchestral arrangement of "Blue Waters" from Yasunori Shiono's soundtrack to Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. I made this arrangement quite a while ago, in the summer of 2013. I have to be honest: summer is not my favorite season. I'm not that fond of the heat, but I do love the sea. So, one day, when I was bored and felt like making some music, I browsed some VGM to find a nice ocean-related source. Here's where I hear you saying: "Aquatic Ambiance," duh! Don't get me wrong: I do love "Aquatic Ambiance" as much as the next guy, but I prefer making arrangements of under-represented sources. I finished the track in a couple of days, but didn't release it for some reason. Now it's 2016 and I finally took the time to submit it.

I usually have an elaborate backstory for my mixes, but this one was much more spontaneous, so I've only got "ocean mood meets sailing adventure." Sorry. I guess you could define this as a spiritual successor to my "Dragon Wings" arrangement. I used ocean wave sounds instead of cymbals and gongs and included some whale song in the breakdown section in the middle. Enjoy!"

Very refreshing, positive, & open feel to this, as things rise slowly and a rhythmic pulse emerges. Greg's working on getting the Lufia II album project back on track, so let's see what he thinks:

"Archangel and a Lufia remix? Talk about low hanging fruit, for me. ;) Anyway, I will say, even for an older work, it's a pretty fantastic orchestration. Full of life, and it certainly does evoke the ocean (in more of a 'Time to go on an adventure' sort of way than the source did)."

Liontamer adds:

"Short and sweet, this was Jaka's usual excellence. He did a great job getting mileage out the source with constant variations of the theme via the different textures during each iteration. I thought the piano was too mechanical, but it was mixed and effected in a way where the realism issue was at least mitigated. Nice orchestration and subtle use of SFX here and there. Nice work!"

Agreed; production/samples are a little dated relative to what Jaka's capable of these days, but it all holds up well, and the ReMix does a particularly good job capturing an atmosphere of open water & possibility. Good stuff!