Video games tend to be noisy. But there are some wonderful examples of when a bit of restraint goes a long way when it comes to a game’s sound and music. By Thomas Quillfeldt The old proverb goes: “Silence is golden.” Claude Debussy said: “Music is the space between the...
By Thomas Quillfeldt The inherent unreality of game worlds coupled with the video game industry’s massive J.R.R. Tolkien preoccupation (and through him, Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle and various Nordic mythologies) means that for decades now, players have been presented with many, many different interpretations of ‘fantasy’. The pursuit of...
We gather tributes from notable Uematsu superfans from around the video games and game music communities. By Thomas Quillfeldt In June 2017 in Paris and London, Eckehard Stier raised his baton to conduct one of the world’s best orchestras—the London Symphony Orchestra—alongside the London Symphony Chorus, in performances of classical arrangements of music...
By Thomas Quillfeldt As we’ve been exploring in our blog series, ‘Why we ♥ video game music’, game soundtracks can come to mean an awful lot to people, not least because they become wrapped up with memories and emotions of specific gaming moments. We asked some of the most passionate...
Tune by tune, we break down the structure of Roger Wanamo's Final Fantasy VI Symphonic Poem—an epic struggle between our heroine, Terra, and the villainous Kefka. By Thomas Quillfeldt Conceived as a set of orchestral concert suites, first performed in 2013, Final Symphony is based on the music of video game...
It has been a busy 12 months here at Laced Records HQ and we've been beavering away creating extra special releases, taking pride in every little detail. Here is a round-up of our 2016 releases, bringing together product details, artwork and relevant links. ENTER THE GUNGEON: HEART IN HALVES EP...
By Thomas Quillfeldt Some 35 years old, the Japanese role-playing game genre doesn’t seem to have dimmed in popularity, with 2016 seeing the flagship JRPG series, Final Fantasy, enjoy its 84th game release (depending on how you count the numerous spin-offs, re-releases and mobile titles). Of course a major element...
By Thomas Quillfeldt and David Housden The Final Fantasy series is one of gaming’s crown jewels. Say what you will about individual games, quirks and tropes of the series or core gameplay mechanics—it can’t be denied that the fan community is incredibly vibrant both in terms of the wider series...
By Thomas Quillfeldt Merregnon Studios and Laced Records are teaming up to bring you the concert albums Final Symphony and Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo on CD and vinyl, covering the music of a number of composers that worked on classic Square Enix RPGs including Nobuo Uematsu & Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy),...
