ReMix:Super Castlevania IV "Reflections" 2:59

From Vampire Variations III comes this reflective & haunting orchestral arrangement of Super Castlevania IV, from album director Chernabogue (Alexandre Mourey) & HoboKa (Alex Shtokalko); the former writes:

"Waterfall" is one of my favorite tracks from the Super Castlevania IV soundtrack (and the Lords of Shadow version is excellent too). HoboKa came up with a nice arrangement idea, and we agreed on the fact his track needed a sample and mixing update. The source just asked for this: a calm orchestral take, as relaxing as meditating under a waterfall. Thanks to Pete (Phonetic Hero) for giving us feedback on this one!"

It's one of my favorites, too, as I mentioned in the writeup for Phonetic Hero's ReMix of this same theme; excellent stuff. Unless you've achieved Iron Fist levels of Zen, meditating under a waterfall is actually probably gonna be pretty stressful, but I get the mental image nonetheless ;) HoboKa adds:

"Well, it's an orchestral semi-re-interpretative remix. Has some original elements to it, and was also inspired by the more recent Castlevania on the PS3 as well. The "Waterfall" theme of Castlevania IV has always held a special place in my heart - one of my favourite tunes of the whole SNES era; it's a shame that it appears only briefly in the game. Anyhow, I've taken my hand at remixing this one way back and even made an original track inspired by the theme. Now, I have returned to it in full force and had Chernabogue help me out big time with the production and some cool soundscape effects. Chernabogue touched up stuff and remastered things with his superior sound library and skillz, so Alex definitely deserves credit; and I'm glad I had the opportunity to collaborate with him. Hoping you guys think it's worth putting this bad boy in the OCR rosters."

The semi-re-interpretativeness of the arrangement (what we usually refer to as being conservative) was definitely a sticking point for some judges; Sir_NutS clarified his approval in regard to this concern:

"The pizzicato sequence is not the same as in the original, it changes to harmonize with the progression instead of being static, and the changes from measure to measure are different as well. The background strings also do not follow the progression verbatim, although they do start on the same notes. The piano as well has some subtle changes and addition of extra notes in the higher registers that are all new. The main melodies remain very closely tied to the source but there is work done in the first half and calling it a straight up cover is really not fair.

The second part expands on the source in more evident and creative ways. I did enjoy some of the chord resolutions which fell into more pleasant harmonies than the more somber tones expressed in the source, 1:32~ is a good example of this."

I think the arrangement changes were more difficult to pick up on due to the overall aesthetic similarity to the source, in terms of mood & instrumentation. Mike's analysis is detailed and points out the subtle but meaningful additions/changes that do indeed mix things up a bit; while still conservative, there's evident interpretation/expression. While "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a truism, that would really mean never arranging anything in the first place; we stand by our standards in requiring that artists make conscious & interpretive decisions in their submissions. This mix treads that line a bit, but I'm glad substantive analysis was involved in sussing out the discrepancies & nuanced modifications. Chimpazilla says it more concisely:

"I see all the crits here and I don't disagree about the first half being conservative, but I love where you went with it and the arrangement flows really well. The humanization works well enough and it is a good, emotive track. Going with it."

Pretty much; good stuff, appropriately titled, maintaining & further exploring the very serene, transcendental vibe of the classic original.