ReMix:Bahamut Lagoon "Stockholm" 5:01

Bahamut Lagoon. A lagoon... full of Bahamut. Because why not? We conclude our Unsung Heroes flood with this mellow, downtempo groove on Noriko Matsueda's original, from Avaris:

"This mix was heavily inspired by the FFX "Journey's End" mix, sephfire's arrangement skills in general, tons of stuff off of Armada's chillout/lounge compilations, and my own twisted sense of music. This has probably been the most enjoyable mix I have ever done. I sat down awhile back and completely re-imagined my composition process. I felt I kept on running into the same issues with every song I worked on. It was actually a really enjoyable experience to take a step back in order to be very subjective on one's own musical strengths and shortcomings."

Sounds like an introspective, reflective creation process, and the resulting arrangement conveys some of that pensiveness - this is a mellower, pared-down sound for Shaun, and there's more emphasis on texture. The main melody here has one motif that totally reminds me of the main theme to Sega's Quartet, so I've got a hard time mentally not expecting the rest of the phrase to follow through, but I doubt few people will have that connection. Director OA writes:

"The sound of this mix is really deep, and the contemplative and melancholy melody really shines when the ornamentation is so sparse. There are some beautiful washes of sound that are applied with a very light tough, almost like a watercolor painting, and each sound used gradually builds the track until the ending. An arrangement like this goes to show that when your source music is so strong, less can certainly be more when it comes to arranging it."

Deia adds:

"'Stockholm' has a bit of an exotic flare to it that adds a lot of character to the original source. Bahamut Lagoon has been on my "to-play" list for years, and this only increases my desire to experience the game first hand. Shaun uses a bit of a minimalist approach to the track at times, which exudes a contemplative nature. The backing elements add a lot of movement to the track, and the choir parts give everything an ethereal ambiance. Nice work from Shaun!"

Well said; interesting to see Shaun reform his workflow & draw direct inspiration from some existing mixes, and I think the results speak for themselves. Enjoy it, and enjoy all of Unsung Heroes - a huge congratulations to OA, Deia, Stevo, and the ENTIRE roster of artists who've started 2012 off with a fantastic album that celebrates some amazing, lesser-known VGM!