OCR04614 - *YES* Finding Paradise "Eternal Reverie"

[Liontamer]

Track Artists:

 

Arr., Keys: Torby Brand

Real name: Torbjørn Brandrud

Links: https://youtube.com/c/TorbyBrand

https://fanlink.to/torbybrand

Submission information:

 

Track name: Eternal Reverie

Source Game: Finding Paradise

Source Track: Time is a Place, Faye's Theme, Ending Theme

Comments:
 

This track was part of the 2023 Pixel Mixers project: "The Great Tale of the Little Ones Vol. 3". Upon entering this project, I had pursued the idea of creating music based on Kan Gao's amazing scores. They are simplistic, but they perfectly capture the atmosphere and emotions of his stories and games, such as "To the Moon" (2011) and "Finding Paradise" (2017). These games carry deep storytelling that tugged at my heartstrings and sat in my mind for a long time. That's why, when I went on to cover the main theme of Finding Paradise, I wanted to do more than a simple transcription of the piano score. 

 

The main motif of the game has several renditions spread out throughout the score. My arrangement can be considered a medley of "Faye's Theme", "Ending Theme", and "Time is a Place". I have attempted to capture the essence of these melodies, and poured it into one, single piano arrangement. It's not an elaborate or complex arrangement, but in this case I prefer the simplicity of it. It aims to channel the feelings and essence of the story, with a heartfelt performance.

 

I have added a few original sections, and I've worked to fuse the sections together organically to make the transitions as seamless as possible. Furthermore, I've expanded upon the simplistic beauty of the songs by adding harmonies and additional melodies on top of the original. I think they compliment the score well, and naturally fits into the theme.

Lastly, I want to say that I'm extremely grateful to the game and what it has given me. I'm happy to have been able to create this arrangement and performance, to express my feelings about the story, and to inspire others to experience it.

Best,

Torby Brand

Pianist | Producer

[prophetik music]

what strikingly emotive originals. i've never heard of this composer at all - clearly my loss.

remix starts with block chords and gradually fills out the progression. 0:48 is the first section i'd call melodic content, and the characteristic ascending line comes in soon after. i appreciate the way you've picked up gao's use of grace notes and octave jumps and integrated those into this arrangement. the wider voicings you use at 2:01 really flesh out the beautiful progression the originals are based around as well, and i appreciate the space that those voicings give it. 

2:42 is a break of sorts, and i felt this section was a let-down after the rich voicings of the earlier section. i felt there could have much more use of dynamics and some push-pull of tempi to replicate some of what makes the originals so striking. the intensity build here is still notable even despite the messy low end in this section, and it keeps driving towards a peak at 3:32. your wide voicings here actually play against you a bit as the low end of this piano is a bit growly, and keeping your hands 2+ octaves apart loses the richness of those middle tones that you utilized more effectively earlier.

4:01 is another shift, and functions well as a way to bring down the energy and move us towards an ending. i admit i expected a final chord in there somewhere.

this is a beautiful arrangement overall. some elements - like the overly-wide voicings at 3:30ish, and an overall lack of significant dynamic contrast outside the very beginning and end - act as detractors, but they don't take away from the simple pleasures of the original, and your arrangement is transparent enough to not get in the way of that. nice work.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

I love this series, the composition being one big part of why. Such lovely use of leitmotifs that mesh with the emotional storytelling. Hugely underrated. But we're here to talk about the remix, not Kan Gao.

I'm not a pianist, so I can't really comment on the performance here except that it sounds good to me. I felt like the lighter touch at 2:42 was appropriate, though a more dramatic build to 3:15 and again at 3:32 would have been appreciated.  And I thought the ending was just fine; an imperfect ending is a good homage to the source material.

An enthusiastic

YES

[DarkSim]

Wow, what lovely source tunes! I feel like doing a solo piano arrangement of these themes invites comparison to the Ending Theme, itself also a solo piano arrangement. It's great that you've seamlessly worked in the other sources though, as your arrangement is clearly your own. It helps that there is a common motif across all the sources, but you've done a great job of capturing the essence of them and still keeping it original.

Comparing the performance to the Ending Theme, there isn't as much ebb and flow to your piece, both in terms of dynamics and tempo, however that's not to say it isn't heartfelt and sincere. The production/recording could be cleaner (again going off direct comparison), but it's more than good enough for our standards. The 'big finish' at 3:17-3:47 has weight to it, and is a decent emotional payoff for the track.

Some of the high grace notes I felt were played a little too strongly, particularly towards the end at 4:09 and 4:39, and the damping at 0:47 caught me by surprise on first listen, however I'm sure it's intentional. Minor points on what is overall a delightful listen.

YES

[Liontamer]

At :27, with the lead notes taking up more space, it helps mitigate the realism issues of the left-hand chords. Literally said "ugh" at the awkward decay/stop at :46, which felt sloppy. The performance sounds emotive enough to get by, and the arrangement's totally solid, so no worries there, but the tone & performance still sound stilted on account of the sampled piano, so the arrangement's potential isn't fully realized.

I've not heard a piano piece from Torby yet that sounds like a realistic piano. Are there any technical tweaks that could humanize this beyond a pricier keyboard? The sample's too exposed and, for a stickler like me, it makes the listen more about what's lacking on the production side than what's working on the arrangement side. Make no mistake though, the production squeaks by for me, with the arrangement carrying it.

YES