Post by ralahinn1 on Aug 23, 2008 13:13:44 GMT -5
This is a good list 
:
blog.wired.com/games/2008/08/irish-game-musi.html
:Irish Music for Videogame Music Fans
By Chris Kohler August 22, 2008 | 6:21:00 PMCategories: Culture
There's a significant amount of crossover between Irish traditional music and videogame soundtracks.
Some game composers cite Celtic musicians and musical groups as direct influences on their styles, for one. Their videogame soundtracks occasionally actually go so far as to feature performances by world-class Irish musicians.
Why? Certainly there are many different genres of music from which game composers have borrowed to create musical accompaniments to videogame action. But there's no mistaking the clear similarity between the forms, especially when we're talking about music from older videogames. Irish traditional tunes are simple, often unaccompanied melody lines that are brief, easy to remember and loop back upon themselves infinitely.
Classic videogame melodies do quite the same thing, owing to limitations on the length and complexity of the music that a composer could create -- even on a Super NES or PlayStation.
I got into Irish music just as I was getting into videogame music. It was around 1998 when I started college, which had the dual benefits of putting me into the (relatively) big city of Boston, its used-CD stores overflowing with deep stocks of cheap music, and hooking me up to a T1 line so I could download anything I couldn't buy.
The connections immediately became apparent -- here were the liner notes for Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon, which I'd just bought off of the then-new eBay, and in it were listed several Irish performers whose solo CDs I'd seen at Planet Records in Harvard Square.
It wasn't all that easy, of course -- Irish traditional music, I quickly discovered, is quite different than Final Fantasy, even if it's the same people playing it. Music is a highly personal experience, and the fact that you and I both like thing A, and I like thing B, doesn't mean you'll also like thing B.
To that end, I solicited suggestions from like-minded Wired.com readers, who sent in some interesting tips as well as connections between game soundtracks and Irish music that I hadn't thought of.
Without further prelude, here are our suggestions of Irish music for game music fans.
If you like Creid, the arranged studio version of the soundtrack to Yasunori Mitsuda's Xenogears, you are not alone. His fusion of Irish instruments (including Riverdance players Davy Spillane on pipes and Maire Breatnach on fiddle) with heavy percussion and otherworldly vocals has made Creid one of the must-listen pieces of game music.
If you're into this, you can't go wrong with Afro Celt Sound System. As the group's name implies, they too fuse Irish traditional sounds with African beats and languages, creating a wholly unique experience. I'd recommend their breakout hit album Further In Time to start off, although I like Seed and Anatomic a little more.
Uilleann pipes player Davy Spillane's trademark sound is heard throughout this album, and if you like that, you'll love his solo work. Most of it is out of print or hard to find or only available in Japan or all three, but The Sea of Dreams shouldn't be too hard to track down used.
Reader Shih Tzu suggests some other fusion groups: Skyedance, Eileen Ivers and Capercaillie from Scotland. "Tarras' Rising has several tracks that would fit right into an RPG," he writes.
In a perfect world, Mitsuda would have created an arranged album for Chrono Cross, too, but instead all we have is this sprawling 3-disc original soundtrack. Not that it's anything to sneeze at. The opening track alone, "Scars of Time," is what inspired me to actually learn to play Irish whistle, and it's what most people think of when Chrono Cross is mentioned (especially now that everyone's fan glee at a Chrono sequel is ten years in the grave and we can recognize that it was kind of a total mess, as a game).
This seems like as good a place as any to suggest Enya. Yes, Enya -- if all you've ever heard is "Orinoco Flow" over and over, you haven't really heard her. If there's any one person not making videogame soundtracks who should be, it's her, a singular talent who sounds like literally nothing I've ever heard before, turning simple melodies and plaintive lyrics into rich orchestrations that make great background music for just about anything. Try her debut album The Celts.
And, of course, there's always Riverdance, as suggested by reader T.J. Miller. I'm not a big fan of the show itself, nor Lord of the Dance or anything like that, but the soundtrack is excellent. It's varied, mixing songs and instrumentals, so it's easy for beginners to get into. There are a few versions, but Riverdance on Broadway is my favorite.
Of the three major videogame soundtracks that Mitsuda produced in rapid succession right at the turn of the millennium, An Cinniuint is easily the least well-known. It's the soundtrack to Tsugunai, an obscure role-playing game for PS2 released by Atlus, and one of the first projects that Mitsuda undertook as a freelance composer after leaving Square. But it's also the closest in style to actual traditional Irish music.
In fact, as reader Shih Tzu noted, one of the tracks on the album is a traditional Irish tune that was actually performed by Irish supergroup Lunasa on their debut album -- it's called "The Pub" on Mitsuda's CD and "Kerfunten" on Lunasa's.
So this might be an excellent place to name-check some of the groups that are keeping traditional Irish music alive today. Lunasa is an instrumental group whose master-class playing and unorthodox arrangements have made them a favorite of both Mitsuda and Suikoden composer Miki Higashino.
Other bands in the same style that add vocals into the mix are the amazing Dervish, Solas, Cherish the Ladies, The Bothy Band and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu's favorite Irish group, Altan.
(I'm spending very little time on these groups, but I want to note that this is the style of music that currently makes up the vast majority of my Irish music collection, and I just want to point out that your favorite game music composers agree with me, for what that's worth. Try Dervish's Midsummer's Night or the best of the Bothy Band.)
Finally, before I leave off discussion of Mitsuda and his influences, might I recommend his solo album Kirite to anyone who enjoys his other work? Mitsuda's post-Square stuff hasn't been as ambitious as Creid, but Kirite comes the closest, even though (or perhaps because) it's not part of a videogame soundtrack. Some of the performers are straight from Creid, too.
So, speaking of Nobuo Uematsu. He dabbled very briefly in Celtic and other genres of European music when he produced the arranged versions of some of his early Final Fantasy tunes. Since then he's moved on pretty much exclusively to prog-rock with his Black Mages concerts, but 1991's Celtic Moon is still a landmark arranged game music album.
While the tunes stuck pretty closely to the in-game originals, what made this album such an interesting intersection of worlds is that it featured a whole host of well-known Irish performers. Most notably, accordion player Sharon Shannon was part of the troupe; that same year, her debut self-titled solo album went on to become the biggest-selling album of Irish traditional music ever.
Also featured on Shannon's solo album was fiddle player Maire Breatnach, who was the arranger of Celtic Moon, played on Creid, and was the original fiddle player for Riverdance, among other accomplishments.
Other Irish musicians who played on Celtic Moon include flute player Cormac Breatnach and percussionist Tommy Hayes, both featured on Riverdance, and whistle/pipes player Ronan Browne, who in addition to being a founding member of Afro Celt Sound System went on to record two albums of RPG music arranged in Celtic style: Melody of Legend Chapter of Love and Chapter of Dream. They are well out of print but worth tracking down for completists: The games featured on the discs range from popular titles like Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross to more obscure titles like Moon and Popolocrois.
I've never listened to the three Genso Suikoden Celtic Collection CDs, because I've never actually been into Suikoden as a game series. But since so many readers mentioned them -- and since we've already established that composer Miki Higashino and I have a lot in common, as far as our tastes in music -- I can't leave this series out.
"Scottish fiddler Catriona MacDonald's Bold has a very dramatic, Suikoden-ish groove," writes erudite reader Shih Tzu.
"You should definitely mention Hevia, a Spanish bagpiper who has made five albums," emails Matias Autio. "I've only heard the first two albums, but the music is very Suikoden-ish... and although it concentrates mostly on bagpipe, there are other instruments as well."
Finally, Siliconera's Jeriaska writes in to point out that if you like the music from Odin Sphere, you should know it was created in part by Shanachie, a Japanese group that plays Japanese-language versions of classic Irish and other European songs.
As I said when I kicked this off, music is a personal experience, and I don't expect everyone to agree with these choices, or that you'll enjoy a certain recommended group just because it's listed alongside something you do love. So if anyone has more suggestions or different ideas about this, feel free to continue the discussion below.
By Chris Kohler August 22, 2008 | 6:21:00 PMCategories: Culture
There's a significant amount of crossover between Irish traditional music and videogame soundtracks.
Some game composers cite Celtic musicians and musical groups as direct influences on their styles, for one. Their videogame soundtracks occasionally actually go so far as to feature performances by world-class Irish musicians.
Why? Certainly there are many different genres of music from which game composers have borrowed to create musical accompaniments to videogame action. But there's no mistaking the clear similarity between the forms, especially when we're talking about music from older videogames. Irish traditional tunes are simple, often unaccompanied melody lines that are brief, easy to remember and loop back upon themselves infinitely.
Classic videogame melodies do quite the same thing, owing to limitations on the length and complexity of the music that a composer could create -- even on a Super NES or PlayStation.
I got into Irish music just as I was getting into videogame music. It was around 1998 when I started college, which had the dual benefits of putting me into the (relatively) big city of Boston, its used-CD stores overflowing with deep stocks of cheap music, and hooking me up to a T1 line so I could download anything I couldn't buy.
The connections immediately became apparent -- here were the liner notes for Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon, which I'd just bought off of the then-new eBay, and in it were listed several Irish performers whose solo CDs I'd seen at Planet Records in Harvard Square.
It wasn't all that easy, of course -- Irish traditional music, I quickly discovered, is quite different than Final Fantasy, even if it's the same people playing it. Music is a highly personal experience, and the fact that you and I both like thing A, and I like thing B, doesn't mean you'll also like thing B.
To that end, I solicited suggestions from like-minded Wired.com readers, who sent in some interesting tips as well as connections between game soundtracks and Irish music that I hadn't thought of.
Without further prelude, here are our suggestions of Irish music for game music fans.
If you like Creid, the arranged studio version of the soundtrack to Yasunori Mitsuda's Xenogears, you are not alone. His fusion of Irish instruments (including Riverdance players Davy Spillane on pipes and Maire Breatnach on fiddle) with heavy percussion and otherworldly vocals has made Creid one of the must-listen pieces of game music.
If you're into this, you can't go wrong with Afro Celt Sound System. As the group's name implies, they too fuse Irish traditional sounds with African beats and languages, creating a wholly unique experience. I'd recommend their breakout hit album Further In Time to start off, although I like Seed and Anatomic a little more.
Uilleann pipes player Davy Spillane's trademark sound is heard throughout this album, and if you like that, you'll love his solo work. Most of it is out of print or hard to find or only available in Japan or all three, but The Sea of Dreams shouldn't be too hard to track down used.
Reader Shih Tzu suggests some other fusion groups: Skyedance, Eileen Ivers and Capercaillie from Scotland. "Tarras' Rising has several tracks that would fit right into an RPG," he writes.
In a perfect world, Mitsuda would have created an arranged album for Chrono Cross, too, but instead all we have is this sprawling 3-disc original soundtrack. Not that it's anything to sneeze at. The opening track alone, "Scars of Time," is what inspired me to actually learn to play Irish whistle, and it's what most people think of when Chrono Cross is mentioned (especially now that everyone's fan glee at a Chrono sequel is ten years in the grave and we can recognize that it was kind of a total mess, as a game).
This seems like as good a place as any to suggest Enya. Yes, Enya -- if all you've ever heard is "Orinoco Flow" over and over, you haven't really heard her. If there's any one person not making videogame soundtracks who should be, it's her, a singular talent who sounds like literally nothing I've ever heard before, turning simple melodies and plaintive lyrics into rich orchestrations that make great background music for just about anything. Try her debut album The Celts.
And, of course, there's always Riverdance, as suggested by reader T.J. Miller. I'm not a big fan of the show itself, nor Lord of the Dance or anything like that, but the soundtrack is excellent. It's varied, mixing songs and instrumentals, so it's easy for beginners to get into. There are a few versions, but Riverdance on Broadway is my favorite.
Of the three major videogame soundtracks that Mitsuda produced in rapid succession right at the turn of the millennium, An Cinniuint is easily the least well-known. It's the soundtrack to Tsugunai, an obscure role-playing game for PS2 released by Atlus, and one of the first projects that Mitsuda undertook as a freelance composer after leaving Square. But it's also the closest in style to actual traditional Irish music.
In fact, as reader Shih Tzu noted, one of the tracks on the album is a traditional Irish tune that was actually performed by Irish supergroup Lunasa on their debut album -- it's called "The Pub" on Mitsuda's CD and "Kerfunten" on Lunasa's.
So this might be an excellent place to name-check some of the groups that are keeping traditional Irish music alive today. Lunasa is an instrumental group whose master-class playing and unorthodox arrangements have made them a favorite of both Mitsuda and Suikoden composer Miki Higashino.
Other bands in the same style that add vocals into the mix are the amazing Dervish, Solas, Cherish the Ladies, The Bothy Band and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu's favorite Irish group, Altan.
(I'm spending very little time on these groups, but I want to note that this is the style of music that currently makes up the vast majority of my Irish music collection, and I just want to point out that your favorite game music composers agree with me, for what that's worth. Try Dervish's Midsummer's Night or the best of the Bothy Band.)
Finally, before I leave off discussion of Mitsuda and his influences, might I recommend his solo album Kirite to anyone who enjoys his other work? Mitsuda's post-Square stuff hasn't been as ambitious as Creid, but Kirite comes the closest, even though (or perhaps because) it's not part of a videogame soundtrack. Some of the performers are straight from Creid, too.
So, speaking of Nobuo Uematsu. He dabbled very briefly in Celtic and other genres of European music when he produced the arranged versions of some of his early Final Fantasy tunes. Since then he's moved on pretty much exclusively to prog-rock with his Black Mages concerts, but 1991's Celtic Moon is still a landmark arranged game music album.
While the tunes stuck pretty closely to the in-game originals, what made this album such an interesting intersection of worlds is that it featured a whole host of well-known Irish performers. Most notably, accordion player Sharon Shannon was part of the troupe; that same year, her debut self-titled solo album went on to become the biggest-selling album of Irish traditional music ever.
Also featured on Shannon's solo album was fiddle player Maire Breatnach, who was the arranger of Celtic Moon, played on Creid, and was the original fiddle player for Riverdance, among other accomplishments.
Other Irish musicians who played on Celtic Moon include flute player Cormac Breatnach and percussionist Tommy Hayes, both featured on Riverdance, and whistle/pipes player Ronan Browne, who in addition to being a founding member of Afro Celt Sound System went on to record two albums of RPG music arranged in Celtic style: Melody of Legend Chapter of Love and Chapter of Dream. They are well out of print but worth tracking down for completists: The games featured on the discs range from popular titles like Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross to more obscure titles like Moon and Popolocrois.
I've never listened to the three Genso Suikoden Celtic Collection CDs, because I've never actually been into Suikoden as a game series. But since so many readers mentioned them -- and since we've already established that composer Miki Higashino and I have a lot in common, as far as our tastes in music -- I can't leave this series out.
"Scottish fiddler Catriona MacDonald's Bold has a very dramatic, Suikoden-ish groove," writes erudite reader Shih Tzu.
"You should definitely mention Hevia, a Spanish bagpiper who has made five albums," emails Matias Autio. "I've only heard the first two albums, but the music is very Suikoden-ish... and although it concentrates mostly on bagpipe, there are other instruments as well."
Finally, Siliconera's Jeriaska writes in to point out that if you like the music from Odin Sphere, you should know it was created in part by Shanachie, a Japanese group that plays Japanese-language versions of classic Irish and other European songs.
As I said when I kicked this off, music is a personal experience, and I don't expect everyone to agree with these choices, or that you'll enjoy a certain recommended group just because it's listed alongside something you do love. So if anyone has more suggestions or different ideas about this, feel free to continue the discussion below.
blog.wired.com/games/2008/08/irish-game-musi.html
