Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest "Dawn Chorus" 5:37

It's been a while since we've featured a WillRock track, where he let the eagles fly for some Shovel Knight power metal. We've got a completely different Donkey Kong Country 2 interlude today: a fusion of cello and winds with synth beds, sampled vocals, and birbs, featuring Christine Giguère on cello and Denis Bluteau on flute!

Some background from WillRock:

"So, this remix has a bit of an interesting starting off point. David Wise came to our college to guest lecture for a few of my sessions! Rather surreal.

After meeting David Wise, I got inspired enough to make a new age, ambient, and atmospheric remix of "Forest Interlude" from Donkey Kong Country 2, which has always been one of my favourites of his. I tried my best to make a remix that pays tribute to the original this time around. I took some inspiration from Hans Zimmer and Enya when making this.

So, I worked on the track and got it to a reasonable level but, rather unusually, I had the original composer to send it to - so, send it I did, and David gave me feedback! So, I got to work on putting in his feedback, which amounted to some compositional editing, and adding flute, cello, and duduk as the leads, and it really elevated this track to the next level. I also added some vocal samples to give it a "Now We Are Free"/Enya vibe. Finally, I was talking to Sixto Sounds (Juan Medrano) who said "You should add some birds!" Add birds I did.

So, for the name, I was talking to Wes McDonald (Emunator) about what to actually call the track - if you want someone to name a track, he's your guy, he also named "Transient Shadows"! - and he suggested "Dawn Chorus". So, yup. I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out. A lot went into this one to make it good, but I think I finally did this great source tune justice.

A lot of work went into making this one - I do need to thank Emery here, he knew many of the people who directly worked on this collaboratively, even if he didn't actively work on the track himself. The track involves the instrumental talents of Christine Giguère - (DaMonz's mum!) - who played cello, and Denis Bluteau, who played flute. Sèbastien Dufour (Trainbeat) also deserves special mention for transcribing and recording both the cello and the flute performances. I do feel like they are what truly elevate this track, so they deserve a lot of credit.

Finally, David Wise himself needs a very special mention here. Of course, he wrote the original, but his feedback really pushed this one and inspired me to up my game to make it something that, hopefully, you'll all enjoy!"

Wow! Liontamer made an early comment that getting David Wise's stamp of approval before submitting to OCR is a first. Make no mistake, y'all: this track is gorgeous. Lush textures envelop your mind's ear, urging you to sway deeper into the forest. More than granting a title, Emunator felt himself get carried away:

"Holy shit. In the same way that Fly Like an Eagle felt like a culmination of a sound that Will had been working toward for decades, he comes back again with stunning track in a completely different style that also feels like a massive realization of ideas that have been percolating for a long time, but elevated with a new set of ideas and insight. The addition of acoustic instruments is a wildly successful choice, adding something salient to grasp onto amid a wash of ambiance and birds. The new chord structures at 3:43 were also a great choice, especially since the arrangement stayed so close to the original progression, it feels all the more climactic. The last two minutes of this arrangement are just perfection, I could float away to this forever."

With additional commentary from judge Hemophiliac:

"I found myself wanting to immediately turn this up because of how well balanced everything is and it's very enjoyable loud. I feel like this pays homage to the feeling of the original so well that this could have fit along-side it in game.

The performances on the flute and cello are impeccable, and I don't have a single thing to critique. Absolute masterpiece, instant classic."

Instant classic, indeed. It's a lot more than "DKC2 with Birds" – it's your ticket to aural paradise!