ReMix:Chrono Cross "Guldove Shaman" 5:10

Rebecca E. Tripp offers up an hypnotic, reverent orchestral & new age take on "Island of the Earth Dragon" from Chrono Cross:

"This is my remix of the "Earth Dragon Isle" music from Chrono Cross, which is also played in the shaman's hut in Guldove. The original is one of my favourite Mitsuda tracks of all time, and I wanted to do a cover of it for years; I put it off because I really wanted to do it justice. I intentionally juxtaposed ethereal textures with sounds that felt kind of like minerals. I wanted to convey many "earthy" materials such as sand, dirt, metal, rocks, gems, etc., and also to illustrate the magic, wisdom, and beauty of the earth element as described in the lore of CC."

Very nice use of ensemble/choir & solo/operatic vocalizing as well as tremolo string articulations. It almost feels insulting to say that the highlight of a piece of music is the ending, but in this case I consider it a compliment - the work is transporting & evocative throughout, but I *really* love how Rebecca concludes things in this arrangement, with a subtractive decelerando exposing the tremolo strings & diminishing into a whisper. Dramatic, well-executed, and long enough to lend some structural variety as a result. Liontamer picked up on the ending as well:

"Love this source tune and looped it incessantly 15 years ago. :-) Rebecca did a nice job applying her new age, organic-minded instrumentation approach to the source material. There were times the familiar belltones of the source were very deemphasized, so I could see some listeners wishing that weren't the case, but that was purely a subjective thing, and I can appreciate the change in textures and energy here. The track can seem directionless because the source melody is downplayed, so I wouldn't be surprised by criticisms like that either, but I wasn't bothered by that approach. Nice tempo change around the 4:20 mark towards the finish, BTW. There are things that make the presentation different, and I'm cool with that. Overall, a solid, albeit subdued, arrangement approach."

Rexy goes a bit further:

"The tempo drop at the end almost left me paralyzed with how well you pulled it off - the feeling was like a cloud slowly evaporating into the sky, if you want a poetic nature metaphor. It's calming, it did its purpose, and there's enough substance to carry it through."

Yes - precisely this :) Rebecca has so many (excellent) mixes that I feel part of our job is to pick out the things which distinguish them & which work particularly well, and I think she executed this ending to perfection. Great piece overall, but with an especially striking last impression - enjoy!