ReMix:Secret of Mana "Whispers" 3:57

We hope you're enjoying Secret of Mana: Resonance of the Pure Land and the debut mixes we've been featuring, which do a great job representing the diversity & creativity exhibited throughout all three discs. We'll be seeing more from Resonance in the weeks & months to come, but for now we leave you with a chill, dreamy ambient/jazz downtempo groove from album director Jorito, collaborating with JoyDreamer on vocals & featuring the formidable brass talents of JohnStacy on cornet.

• Jorito - arrangement, production, lyrics
• JoyDreamer, Jorito - vocals
• JohnStacy - cornet

Jorrith writes:

"The source track is very ambient and relaxing, and essentially consists out of just a piano arpeggio, a choir that sings chords and the occasional whale sound. I thought it would be interesting to turn it into a kind of ambient chillout track, reminiscent of Emunator's FFX remix "Laguna Tides," and that was the style I was going for. It was a lot of fun to play around with some crazy layered chords and vocals, and it was also a perfect excuse to add a mellow trumpet solo. This style also reminded me quite a bit of Enigma's "Sadeness," and because of that, adding whispered vocals to it felt the right thing to do. And, of course, you can't have an iconic Secret of Mana track without the iconic whale sound and some more ambient sounds to set the mood.

I was just finishing off work on another remix with Joy, and, since she has a lovely voice that goes well with these kind of dreamy tracks, it only made sense that I asked her to collaborate. She was immediately on board with the idea, and, despite my crazy vocal layers and a few retakes, she managed to pull it off very well. It even encouraged me to double up her performances with some of my own, because just samples weren't gonna cut it.

Same goes for the mellow trumpet solo. I was just wrapping up "A Wistful Heart" with John, and since I knew he is a great brass player with access to a lot of instruments, I asked him if he could perform the part live. He managed to get a great tone on his cornet and also loosened up the timing of the part a bit to make it flow better. All in all, this came out quite different but also quite similar to the original. Hope you like this take on another SoM classic!"

Just as Guifrog's piece delivers on the "footsteps" in ITS title, we've got real, actual whispers aplenty in this mix, which did end up giving me a 90s/Enigma vibe, but enough time has passed that what might have seemed kitsch now seems relevantly retro. As a confession, I bought Deep Forest's "Sweet Lullaby" as a CD single, back in the day :) The jazzy, almost film noir cornet tempers that aesthetic a bit, and sounds fantastic; french horn is fairly different from trumpet/cornet, so good on John for being a versatile brassophile. The vocals are ethereal and well-blended; JoyDreamer (Anne Marie Joy Jørgensen) writes:

"It's always a pleasure working with Jorrith on his arrangements. So much thought, idea exchanges, and precision go into the process and it just goes to show that with so much effort, you can make something truly amazing. I was really happy to be part of the project and I think of it as a great way to show our appreciation of the good old classic games. Let's keep the music alive."

We're certainly trying! Mr. Stacy adds:

"This was my second time to record cornet as a replacement for trumpet, and it actually worked out. This time I used a French horn mouthpiece and adapter to make a much more mellow sound than I think I could get with a standard cornet."

Interesting; as a (mediocre at best) euphonium player, French horn mouthpieces always seemed impossibly tiny to me... I didn't even know they made adapters like this. Very mellow sound, adds a ton to the mix, and the part in general makes the piece more interesting & blurs some genre lines. Ethereal, enveloping, and super-chill, this is another engrossing gem of an arrangement off of Resonance of the Pure Land; congrats to the MANY artists who made it happen and to Jorrith & Mike especially for pulling something truly special together!