ReMix:Final Fantasy IX "Across the Hills" 4:50

Another back-to-back track from Final Fantasy IX: Beyond the Mist, as Jorito (Jorrith Schaap) teams up again w/ Earth Kid & additional collaborator GuitarSVD on beautiful acoustic guitar and emotive erhu; Jorito writes:

"Another track for Pixel Mixers' Final Fantasy 9 tribute album. I love the "Melodies of Life" track from the OST, and "Crossing Those Hills" has such a strong connection to "Melodies of Life" that I just _had_ to claim it. The source track is quite a chill track, and at the time MENU, the first Materia Collective album I did a track on, was just released. Out of that album, I thoroughly enjoyed both Glenntai's and Peter Jones' tracks on those album, both very chill with long chords and filtered drums, and that served as an inspiration for sure.

As (fortunately) usual for me, the writing process was energetic, inspired, and quick, and the bulk of the arrangement was finished in just a few hours. In the first sketch, I had an acoustic guitar part (backed up with a piano drowning in ValhallaShimmer for that nice, dreamy feel), but I felt the track needed another lead instrument. I already wanted to ask fellow PM member Cecil to replace my sampled guitar with some real guitar, and once I recalled that he also plays the erhu, that seemed an interesting and suitable choice. Granted, it's a bit of an unusual instrument in this kind of setting, but you will never know if it works until you try. :)

Early on, I also thought this kind of track would work really well with some sparse vocals. I again managed to bribe Natalya into doing some vocals (she must be sick of me by now :P), so that was a good excuse to write some nice lyrics and harmonies. I felt that the vocal parts needed a bit more bottom end to it, so I recorded some backing vocals myself to fill up the soundscape some more.

It's one of my less complex tracks, but I am really pleased with how it turned out. Kudos to Nat and Cecil for agreeing to perform on it early on and help bringing it to life; it always makes arranging a lot easier if you know what instruments you will be writing for. Enjoy!"

• Arrangement, lyrics, production, backing vocals: Jorito
• Vocals: Earth Kid
• Acoustic guitar, erhu: GuitarSVD

Rexy evaluated:

"Jorrith has been keeping busy as part of the Pixel Mixers as of late. As a fellow member, I've seen him be hard at work with a handful of projects, as well as continue working with collaborators to match with his vision. This is no exception - taking a great overworld map theme from FF9 and turning it into a laid back trip-hop pop arrange. While the source melody is essentially the verse and bridge section for the game's vocal song "Melodies of Life", he was able to make good use of it and shape up the structure so that it worked with a new hook. Natalya and Cecil's contributions also sounded lush and lovely - and in the latter case, I'm especially proud of seeing another erhu make its presence here! It's a tight arrangement with equally strong production values, and another textbook example of Jorrith's use of his social network to create something unique and ear-catching. Sweet stuff!"

Bit short on time this week, but this is a nice companion piece to its predecessor, leaning on vocals a little less & going for a milder, peaceful atmosphere. Erhu was the highlight for me, personally, and I would have loved more; as Jorrith writes, this is a bit less complex than most of his arrangements, but it creates a vibe & stays in that pocket, with a satisfying amount of variation. Enjoy!