ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess "Forest of Purple Mist" 3:44

Twas the afternoon before the night before the night before Christmas, and... we've got a beautiful orchestral/new age Twilight Princess debut arrangement from newcomers Jordanrooben (Jordan Plutchok) & Chimpazilla (Kristina Scheps), with additional assistance from Emunator! Also a hearty welcome & congrats to Kristina specifically, as she and Flexstyle are the newest additions to the infamous-but-beloved judges panel, with XPRTNovice also joining us as a workshop moderator! This mix offers a fantastic, lyrical blend of intrigue & atmosphere, marking a strong debut for both Jordan & Kristina; the former writes:

"About a year ago, I discovered OC ReMix through videos on YouTube, and in a short time I made it a goal to become a posted mixer there. Best. Decision. Ever. The people in the WIP forums have helped me so much in my remixing and composing skills that I wouldn't even be considering an OC ReMix submission if it weren't for them! Thank you to everyone, especially Rozovian and Chimpazilla! I can hardly see why Chimp fell in love with this mix so much, but I'm so glad she did! If it weren't for her, this would never have gone anywhere. And thanks to her, I've fallen in love with this track too. A huge thanks to Emunator too, for his help finalizing the writing and mixing on the track. It's an honor. It's been a great experience, and I hope you'll like it!"

So this was a bit of a musical ménage à trois, but the Jordan-Kristina-Wes trinity have certainly produced an enveloping, coherent piece that has an appropriately foresty/woodsy feel to it. Kristina adds:

"I discovered Jordan’s Faron Woods remix in the wip forum in February 2012. I was immediately captivated by the melodies and countermelodies he had written. Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game… and I was transported right back to Faron Woods while listening. There was something magical about this mix for me… it touched me deeply. Jordan made several updates but I felt that he could use some assistance with drumming and mixing, which he was kind enough to allow me to do. The updated song then caught Emunator’s attention, and he liked it enough to dive in and help with some final writing edits, some instrument replacements, some improved mixing and a brand new ending. Faron Woods never sounded so good!

The song has changed in some ways but basically stays true to the melodies Jordan originally wrote, with some additional embellishments added. I am thrilled to have been part of this collaboration with Jordan and Wes, two very fine gentlemen. I hope we have captured the mystical feel of spending a weekend in the beautiful Faron Woods!"

Last but not least, Emunator lends his thoughts:

"I came on board this arrangement at the 11th hour, when I heard it on the WIP forums after the arrangement was pretty locked in. I fell in love with the very anime/orchestral style that Jordan and Kristina had crafted, and found the instrument choices and dancing melodies very inspiring. The arrangement was already great, but I wanted to do what I could with my (very) minimal experience to help improve the production end of this track.

I actually met with Kristina in person to work on this track and, over the course of a day, we made a mountain of changes to the remix, including replacing samples nearly across the board, resequencing certain instruments/percussion, and adding on a brand new outro, which is the only actual writing I did in this track. There were some limitations that we had to work with on this track because of how absurdly complex the project file had become, but I'm pretty happy with the final result. Thanks so much to Kristina and Jordan for letting me be a part of this mix!"

Awesome that these three artists were able to communicate & collaborate across time & distance - and in person as well - to make this arrangement shine to its fullest extent. While judges still had some minor reservations on sample quality and intonation here and there, the response was uniformly positive, with halc summing things up nicely:

"Wow, really loved the uplifting feel parts of this had compared to the moody original. Awesome harmonic modifications. Production was solidly above the bar with some nice samples. I was getting a little tired of that oboe or whatever it is lead, like palp I think introducing something with a little more oomph would've livened up the later half of the track. overall though I am in love with this arrangement, great collab, fellas."

The oboe slurs had a pacing that at times seemed like a true legato patch would have helped a bit, but this is rather nitpicky - things sound very clean & spacious, and nothing ever truly disturbs the overall mood. I love the combination of percussion, winds, and that delayed harp/guitar component paired with ambient/new age sound FX; DEM CRICKETS!! Lovely LoZ:TP arrangement from Jordan, Kristina, and Wes; definitely hoping there's more where this came from, and congrats to Kristina in particular on joining the judges panel, where she's already voted on 30+ mixes!