Chrono Trigger "Howls of the Black Wind" 3:43

The black wind howls... I mean, maybe it's a cry for help? Everybody asks "What is the black wind?" Nobody asks "How is the black wind?" Maybe in an alternate universe where Janus had a less dysfunctional family and things turned out differently, this jaunty little escapade from Whispy Woodwinds might've been Janus's theme. Okay, this is all my headcanon. Chrono Trigger is a truly GOATed soundtrack, though, and even there the "Magus Confronted" theme looms large with its dark majesty. If you are of an age like I am and played this back in the day on your SNES, I'm sure the entirety of "Magus's Castle" is burned into your synapses. From the beautiful opening pan-up shot of the castle complete with strings outlining Magus's theme, to the dark and eerie corridors, to the final descent down to Magus with the guttural droning in the background. And then, in an utter chef's kiss of detail, the dialogue of Magus being timed to start the fight on the main downbeat of the theme. Man, amazing stuff. So when you think of all the ways to approach Magus's theme, a peppy woodwind quartet was probably not on your bingo card! Let's hear from arranger Lucas Guimaraes:

"These days I'm less likely to join an album project unless I REALLY want to. Just a matter of allocating time and all that. As soon as I saw "Chrono Trigger chamber album", I was like "I'm in." Magus's theme was tricky for two reasons. One, it's one of my favorite VGM tunes of all time. Quite possibly my favorite Chrono Trigger theme. Two, I know people usually say they have difficulty working with a bad source. I can usually cobble something with a bad source if there's something I like in it (see "Livin' Out Our Last Days" - where I hated one of the tracks and was neutral to the other), but here I legitimately started off strong with the structure and then... struggled to fill in a lot of parts on my own. When the original already does a perfect job and I don't have a unique structure idea (there's a remix of "Aquatic Ambiance" I performed live with Lucas Guimaraes & The Dunites where I had that structure from the word "go"), it becomes a huge puzzle for me.

That said, this was probably both some of the most fun and biggest annoyances I had with editing. I really tried to hone in on making everything as good as possible. proph and I bounced around edits back and forth until Andrew told me "Yeah, I recorded bassoon already." The mix doesn't have too much to talk about, but I've been looking for ways to streamline and optimize my mixing workflow. Used the same template as "The Castle Whispers".

Oh, yeah, you might've noticed prophetik there. prophetik's our new saxophonist for WW and I'm so happy and relieved at that change. I definitely don't have the bandwidth to perform for the group and do all the other duties I have, plus having proph on board allows me to pester him for feedback (I jest, I jest). Funny enough, proph inquired about joining thanks to "The Castle Whispers".

Working with these four friends is always wonderful and we're always learning so much from each other. Yeah, the arrangement and mix rule, but these performances really shine. Everyone's tone really shines. I was chatting with Thomas Kresge at VGM CON about how I've always been so humbled by The Game Brass's quality, and he said to me something that really stuck: "Keep going and see the jump at your 50th arrangement." It's really motivated me to keep going with this group. Here's hoping we make it to #50 eventually. Give it a few years.

Hope you all enjoy!"

The great thing about OC ReMix is you never know what you're going to get. One minute you can get arrangements done in a very natural and appropriate style that feel like an extension of the original track, the next you can get something 180 degrees from the feel of the original. What we have here is a very straightforward and well-executed divergent take on Magus played by flute (Gamer of the Winds), clarinet (Steven Higbee), alto sax (prophetik music) and bassoon (Andrew Gossett). And that's it! The recordings are crisp and the performances are solid. Lucas is a versatile musician who is comfortable on either side of the arrangement/performance line, and his cohorts here turned out in fine form. A worthy addition to your Chrono Trigger ReMix collection!