ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Legendary Depths" 7:48

Moving away from the forests and now heading to sea, RebeccaETripp and a familiar trio of new age medley collaborators shift their Zelda source tune focus, once again to -- as our arranger explains -- elegant results:

"This song is the first third of a much longer water medley I composed for YouTube. This is sort of a fun submission for me, because this part of the medley coincidentally comprises of three different themes I once submitted to you guys a long time ago that got rejected.

I had the help of three amazing performers in this arrangement. The flute and piccolo were performed by Gamer of the Winds, the oboe and English horn by Medllix, and the ocarina by Steven Higbee! Thanks so much! You made it even better than it would've been! I highly recommend checking out their channels, as they've all produced many beautiful tracks!"

Tripp also ran down the list of songs included:

• 0:00 - "Serenade of Water"/"Queen Rutela" (OoT and TP)
• 1:22 - "Undersea Waltz" (OoA)
• 2:35 - "Water Temple" (OoT)
• 4:43 - "Ancient Cistern" (SS)
• 5:23 - "Lakebed Temple" (TP)
• 6:53 - "Ice Cavern" (OoT)

Cool to learn that this was a bit of a redemption song for Rebecca, a chance to make right a previous OCR rejection. As with her forest medleys featuring this talented trio, Tripp sets a steady pace, so there were some panel critiques on wanting more dynamic contrast. As I've advocated before, however, one of Tripp's specialties is crafting extended mood pieces with evolving textures that serve as genteel musical journeys, all while playing within a narrower (but ever-present) dynamic curve. In other words, ain't nothin' broken here and this is doing what it needs to do, a line of thinking judge Chimpazilla was simpatico with:

"This is ambient, lovely, meditative, and well performed. All the sources are well represented and flow together swimmingly (see what I did thar?). The mix is lovely, soft, engaging. Performances are great[...]"

Knowing from Tripp's catalog that she's indeed capable of solo pieces that are lovely, soft, and engaging, we still need to praise her collaborators for a large part of this particular piece's success, credit fellow judge Hemophiliac was eager to dispense:

"What pristine performances from Medllix, Gamer of the Winds, and Steven Higbee. How the themes intertwine and pass off is relatively seamless, handled very well. Arrangement is the star.

The tempo change at 1:38 really stands out.

2:01-2:30 has really lovely texture as the lushness really shines along with some small chromaticism. [...]

In the end I love that you really let your performers shine through and the arrangement is strong."

Everything about how Rebecca works with live musicians seems geared toward delicateness and depth. At no point have I ever felt her style was compromised by incorporating outside assistance; in fact, I'd say that among all OCR contributors, Tripp best understands how to have amazing live players perform in line with her vision while sounding like genuine extensions of her arrangement style. Lovely, lovely, lovely, and part two of the medley's in the hopper for later...! :-)