ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom "Ancient Dragons" 4:32

Expect the unexpected! Throat singing? Not a musical technique we anticipated, yet we're so glad it's here! Adding quite the interesting new wrinkle to his game, Gaspode swoops in with an amazingly unorthodox yet emotive rendition of "Servant of the Sacred Spring" from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! This approach wasn't originally Gaspode's creative direction, but once he deviated from the plan, he didn't stop to second-guess his intuition:

"While playing »Tears of the Kingdom«, I was reminded how great the score of the dragons is. So, I started a remix and tried to do something quiet and calm, but soon it took it's own direction after I stumbled upon that beat, that fit perfectly after I altered it.

By the way: I'm not sure about the name of original track. It seems to have many names like »Attendant of the Sacred Spring«, »Servant of the Sacred Spring« or simply »Dragon«. But because the song is the same in both BotW and TotK, and I was inspired from TotK, I named the newer Zelda as the source."

Thanks to Gaspode for clarifying the game & source tune inspirations; since this Breath of the Wild source tune also appears in Tears of the Kingdom, we're cool with classifying this ReMix under the latter. And thanks to Gaspode's introduction, judge MindWanderer walked into this expecting him to play things close, until he got his expectations rocked at :54:

"Seemed pretty conservative to start off with, similar tone to the original but with some extra layers. Then the throat singing and the drums kick in, and wow, not conservative anymore!

[...] This sounds unequivocally great. Very clever, and a fascinating direction to take this source."

Cool approach with the percussion in particular. It definitely branched out more creatively as it went on, which, from an interpretive arrangement frame, was a satisfying arc. In particular, the electrosynths from 1:50-2:17 had a great tone and clicked so well with the supporting kicks. Then the new iteration of the melody at 2:24 had such catchy yet understated percussion writing before the throat singing returned at 2:45. For something with quiet & calm origins, the added complexity Gaspode integrated here is commendable; this is a 4 1/2 masterclass on intelligent arranging. For a Zelda disciple like judge Chimpazilla -- who's got 10+ runs of Breath of Wild and several intelligent Zelda arrangements of her own under her belt -- Gaspode's vision was an eye-opening, dragon-worshipping listen:

"I am very familiar with this source, being a diehard Zelda fan myself, and having played thousands of hours of BotW and now TotK, in both of which this song is featured. Both games contain a lot of sources that are quite ambient, and this source is no exception, but it does have just enough motif to make it easily workable to remix.

What an interesting take on this source! So many unique sounds in this remix, is that throat singing? Holy cow I love it. The throat singing is loud and surprising but it gives me chills. The instruments used in this arrangement are so cool, what an interesting vibe, so many different feels all in one package. It still feels deeply spiritual and floaty, yet groovy. I love the unique off-timed drum groove. [...]

Great mix of distorted and clean sounds, providing excellent contrast throughout the arrangement. Plenty of source in the arrangement; that arp is almost always audible, and the lead motif is played beautifully with lovely and appropriate instruments. I really like the personalization of the writing that starts at 1:49. I'm really enjoying this!"

This one sounds philosophical and evolves beautifully, with lush & exotic textures and enagaging, dynamic ideas that'll keep your ears piqued. Would absolutely love to hear Gaspode go in this direction for a future ReMix. :-) A true treat!