ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess "The Mind Takes Flight" 6:44

A lovely, ambitious, dream-inspired classical Zelda medley featuring five themes from five different games, arranged by the singular Rebecca E. Tripp as kind of a birthday present to herself, which we all thankfully (continue to) benefit from:

"I love being born in the spring. Bees are flying, all the blossoms are in full bloom around my neighborhood, the weather is lovely, we're getting lots of sunshowers, and everything smells beautiful. And I'm always pretty happy on my birthday regardless, to be honest (planning to have some ice cream and watch a film with my family this year!).

Carrying on my yearly tradition, I always try to choose/create something that is very close to my heart each year. This medley is special for a number of reasons, but namely the fact that I heard/saw/composed this video and arrangement in a dream around two months ago. The song somehow felt very important in the context of the dream, so I decided I had to create it in real life, even though it's not something I would've necessarily composed otherwise!

I actually used 4 different harps on this. None of them have round-robin, so I will often do that. One is from an old Garritan library from like 15 years ago, one is from ProjectSAM and two are from EastWest.

Here is a list of the songs included:

• Majora's Mask - "Astral Observatory"
• Twilight Princess - "Lake Hylia"
• Skyward Sword - "Romance in the Air"
• Link's Awakening - "Ballad of the Wind Fish"
• Ocarina of Time - "Great Fairy Fountain"

"Round-robin" in this context refers to sample libraries that have different samples/recordings that are swapped out when the same note is repeated, to avoid the quasi-mechanical feeling that results from retriggering the same exact sample multiple times in a row. I never thought to solve the problem by switching between libraries, but when you've got four different harps, I guess that's an option! Substantive, beautiful work from Rebecca here, with a real emphasis on solo woodwinds in almost a sort of "chamber woodwind ensemble + accompaniment" vibe, with flute, clarinet, oboe, & bassoon all getting some attention, to my ear. There are a lot of sustained notes where I think progressive vibrato or performed/"moused-in" curves could have provided more animation & movement across the note, but that's my only real nitpick - and even then, the myriad held tones have an almost dreamlike quality in & of themselves. Liontamer evaluated:

"Another solid medley from Rebecca, an OCR contributor who really specializes in effectively weaving different sources together. Aside from the initial switch from "Astral Observatory" to "Lake Hylia", the theme changes were all smooth, particularly the gradual transtition from "Lake Hylia" to "Romance in the Air", which was my personal highlight. Any Zelda series fan will especially appreciate the final minute with a bevy of theme interplay as all five source tunes trade off for a strong, sophisticated finish. Beautiful and relaxing; enjoy the stuff that dreams are made of. ;-)"

What he said; while absolutely lovely just from an aesthetic perspective, the arrangement here is the focus, as five themes are explored & then blended into a whole very artfully. If there's a key "magic ingredient" that makes a good medley, I think it would be grace, and this is a graceful, immersive gift to herself & the world - enjoy!