ReMix:Pokémon SoulSilver Version "Gold Soul" 4:30

When Pokémon unexpectedly took off and needed to be localized for global markets, Satoru Iwata once again leveraged his programming expertise to make it happen, beginning a relationship stewarding the franchise that lasted all the way to Pokémon GO. I'd known of anecdotes of Iwata's helpful nature, but you've gotta get Nintendo Force EIC Lucas M. Thomas's book, The Impact of Iwata, to gain a much further appreciation for Iwata's direct contributions toward this S-tier series; whether it was small details, broader concepts, or seeing the bigger picture for Pokémon beyond games, fans around the world owe so much to his influence. The man was indeed a "Gold Soul" for the franchise, so Emunator's Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver tribute to the late Nintendo president from the Impact of Iwata album injects a whole bowl of soul, joined by a huge lineup of talented performers:

Production:

• Main arrangement, production, programming, additional editing: Emunator
• Additional arrangement: CNDR
• Mixing, mastering: ErichWK
• Brass arrangement, string arrangement, orchestration: Lucas Guimaraes
• Additional string arrangement: Marissa Turnage
• Additional audio editing: ZackParrish, Emunator, Ridley Snipes

Band:

• Keys, synths: Emunator
• Guitar (lead/rhythm): CNDR
• Bass (writing and original performance): CNDR
• Bass (performance), drums, percussion: ErichWK

String Section:

• Violin 1/2: Marissa Turnage
• Viola: Andrew Steffen
• Cello: Chromatic Apparatus

Brass Section:

• Trumpet: TSori
• Trombone: Brandon Harnish

Winds:

• Flute, alto flute: Gamer of the Winds
• Bassoon: Andrew Gossett
• Sax - alto: Lucas Guimaraes, Steven Higbee
• Sax - soprano: Gamer of the Winds
• Sax - tenor (ensemble): Lucas Guimaraes, Steven Higbee
• Sax - tenor (solo): ZackParrish

A musical concept as ambitious as this certainly merited lots of hands joining in; it was Emunator's chance interaction with fellow ReMix CNDR that touched off the soul glow-up of "National Park" that you're about to hear:

"Extra shoutouts to Ridley Snipes, paradiddlesjosh, and Hemophiliac, who also made contributions that were ultimately cut from the final track, and provided invaluable feedback along the way!

So, this was supposed to be a lo-fi track. I was supposed to be done with this in 10 hours maximum. But sometimes, when the white rabbit presents itself, you have no choice but to follow and see how far deep the rabbit hole goes.

In this case, my white rabbit was CNDR casually commenting on my lo-fi work in progress: "Hey, this reminds me a little bit of Earth, Wind & Fire." He laid down some scratch guitar tracks to illustrate the vision (some of which are still present in the final mix at 3:50). From there, we took that concept to the logical extreme -- recruiting an entire band and orchestra ensemble to transform the stunning "National Park" into a bonafide 70's soul jam.

The arrangement started with CNDR and I swapping audio recordings and chord progressions over Discord and Facetime to build out a skeleton arrangement, and him laying down guitar/bass riffs to build off of my keyboard instruments. If I had to pick two words to summarize the next 7 months of work that ensued, it would be this: scope creep. Everything that could be performed live, we found a performer for. We went all-out with the orchestration. We spent days on end in Melodyne and iZotope RX polishing the recordings. Even the final mix and master was nearly a month-long process, with some full restarts along the way. From the first concept to the moment I finally had a finished WAV in my hands, the process took me over 150 hours of working time and 7 months, and countless hours of work from a host of collaborators who I am now eternally indebted to.

Everyone involved put an irreplaceable touch on the finished product, but I do need to shout out a few key players who really made this possible:

CNDR, for being the muse for this arrangement and your tireless effort to help work out an arrangement that captured the essence of 70's soul music, and for your killer guitar and bass chops that brought an unmistakable character to the track.

ErichWK, for being an absolute machine on the drums, bass, and behind the console -- you put in SO MUCH WORK getting the mix to shimmer in a way that I never could have accomplished myself. You are a true professional, my friend.

Lucas Guimaraes and Marissa Turnage, who, in addition to performing many of the parts on the track, took my rudimentary MIDI arrangements and transformed them into a full orchestration and also battled MuseScore and Sibelius to get functional sheet music that our performers could actually use.

And ZackParrish, for volunteering countless hours of his valuable time slaving away in Melodyne to get all of our live recordings to line up perfectly, and for dropping in a smooth tenor sax solo at the 11th hour for good measure.

Ultimately, the final product exceeded even my wildest hopes and dreams, and I'll always treasure what this team put together. But more than just the outcome, the process of getting to the finish line was worth just as much. I can't stress enough how under-qualified I was to tackle something of this scope, but I've absorbed such an incredible amount of knowledge from each of my collaborators that I'll carry with me into future projects. I'm proud of what we've made and what I've learned about collaboration in the process. This might be my favorite OCR album to date and I'm so proud to be involved in it! <3"

Avoid collaboration at your peril. Avoid challenges at your peril. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." We're glad Emu followed the white rabbit, because this is a beautiful piece that pretty much speaks for itself, so we'll keep things brief. Judge Chimpazilla has frequently collaborated with Emu, so she uniquely understands the level-up Emunator's achieved thanks to the efforts of CNDR and the bevy of live performers:

"Not only has Wes upped his own production game, but he has a new ability to assemble a team of expert musicians to make his visions reality. There's no stopping him now!"

Emu's fellow judge and collaborator Flexstyle was -- justifiably so -- just as succinct and superlative:

"This is going to go down in OCR history as one of the best mixes ever posted. Silk Sonic ain't got nothing on y'all."

Holy shit, this track... This may come across like an insult, like invoking another artist is somehow an unfair comparison -- I feel like if we had asked J Damashii to contribute and arrange this track for Impact of Iwata, he could have made this. I hold J and his musicianship in the highest regard, so I actually mean this as a massive compliment. And for those thinking "But his tracks are so wild", he's totally capable of dialing it back. What an amazing job, everyone, CNDR especially.

Wes, I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game.

So many special tribute tracks on The Impact of Iwata album, you'd be crazy to pass it up. Be sure to grab The Impact of Iwata book as well, a labor of love & respect for a wonderful programmer, businessman, and collaborator who dedicated his life's work to our fun & enjoyment. To shine a spotlight on another great collaborator, Emunator gave the floor to CNDR to tie a bow around things:

"I'll leave the final word to CNDR, who, when prompted for submission comments, summarized it all better than I ever could:

"Long live the funk.""