ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Lost in Time" 3:49

The community's newest collaborative effort, Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora, can't be contained, so we're back for another flood of 8 mixposts in a row to further spotlight this behemoth, must-listen album! First up among our latest batch of approvals. Together with newcomer metamoogle's vocals & Cyril the Wolf's electric guitar, newcomer Mel Decision (Mel Choyce-Dwan) turns up the tension to take us on a dark journey through Squall's pensive thoughts:

"In FF8, this track comes at the end of the game, immediately proceeding Squall becoming lost in the time compression. I wanted to evoke that feeling of hopelessness and despair as he desperately searches for his companions.

When I started exploring this track, I tried out two very different versions: one simple version with piano and guitar, and a synth-heavy version.

Simple won out, but it needed something. I wrote some lyrics and had metamoogle, whose voice and vocal range I thought would work well with the song, perform them. His singing instantly brought in that missing element from the song. That, along with some melancholy and verbacious guitar from Cyril the Wolf, really rounded out the track. I can't thank them enough for their contributions."

Because this isn't a cacophany of sound, you really can sit with this track and appreciate the details such as Mel's sampled strings & piano subtly raising the feeling of unease at 1:08, metamoogle's vocals at 2:29 echoing in a similar way to the original or at 2:48 potentially fading into the compression of time, or Cyril's guitar adding smoothness and depth the whole way through. Album director Darkflamewolf considered this piece "chilling in a good way" (agreed!) and explained how this was an album highlight:

"I get a feel of creeping uncertainty and inner dread of the future and what time has in store for us. The lyrics of helplessness only accentuate these feelings. This gives the track a certain air that no other on the album can describe or match and that marks it as my favorite."

Once again, credit where credit is due to Darkflamewolf and Jorito for steering folks on the project towards collaborations, as metamoogle's vocal delivery helped Mel's solemn lyrics strike the right tone while Cyril's guitar work was a perfect puzzle piece locking together with everything else. Album co-director Jorito felt the opportunity to join SeeDs of Pandora and integrate live performance helped Mel achieve noteworthy artistic growth and occupy a prime placement within the album:

"Mel is someone I've seen around on the OCR forums, joining competitions, but she never contributed on an OCR album before. It's always great to see some newcomers in the community join an album project (and hopefully get a good experience out of it - I know how it boosted my skills and confidence when I joined my first album!). "Lost in Time" is a very melancholic and slightly dark and haunting take on "The Successor", helped by the lyrics and vocals and the moody strings. Definitely a memorable way to end the first disc of the album."

It's a fine choice for the disc one closer, as the very last line of the woeful lyrics FINALLY strikes a solitary hopeful note admist Squall's emotional squalor. Squall's not alone, and neither is Mel, making an effective tag team with metamoogle's emotive vocals and Cyril's clean guitar, for a delicately crafted, texturally expansive end result. Congrats to Cyril for now having 20 (!!!) OC ReMixes under his belt, and a big official welcome to Mel as well as Ross with praiseworthy featured ReMix debuts that represent Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora with style!