Hi.  Just wanted to let you know that Yasunori Mitsuda's website has been updated and plays a piece from the Chrono Cross arranged album.

David

OMG. I can't describe what I'm feeling right now. To know it's in production makes me feel so relieved. I swear it was like the Duke Nukem Forever of the VGM world.

I can't wait to hear more. Thank you once again!

linky linky?

Google is hard?

http://www.procyon-studio.com/

Haha, sorry about that, I'm at work still and it's balls to the wall busy. =p

Yup, that definitely just made my day.  Nine years too late, but I'll take it!  It could be the wine talking (weee!) but did anyone else get semi-emotional when they heard that track play?

-Mike

Wow, perfect for the holidays, too.

Good to see he was serious about getting this thing done in 2009.  Tenth anniversary of Chrono Cross!

I'm listening to it right now at breakfast and yeah, it's definitely moving to finally hear some arranged CC sweetness...

oh and btw, the album is still planned for release doesn't say when though...

So pretty. Thanks so much for the heads up. I thought this project would never get off the ground. Definitely a much appreciated Christmas present from Mitsuda. :)

With his label being named "Sleigh Bells" afterall, it seems that the Christmas Spirit really gets him motivated 

Oh my god, it's beautiful.  I need this album, now.

Edit:  MP3, anyone?

i still need to play chrono cross.. its one of the few albums i truly dig without ever having played up the game (+terraenigma & star ocean 2)

On it, sir!

Chrono Cross Arranged Sample - A Narrow Space Between Dimensions:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2h40j0hkd2z

In all honesty, I think the original Chrono Cross material sounded excellent, and if the whole Chrono Cross Arrange album was to sound like this sample, I don't know how excited I'd be about it.  This works right now as a sample for Christmas time, but yeah.

I was hoping for something more progressive like the Brink of Time album.  It's a shame he shot down doing something similar.  Anyway, I'm not saying this sounds bad, it's just not drastically new or different.  I was hoping for the beginning of a new and excitingly different story.

I agree, this sample is lazy and boring to say the least. While I don't expect another Brink of Time if this is a sign of all he can conjure up then perhaps we're better off without an arrange album.

I <3 you so much Angela

Ditto!  Thanks, Angela!

Beautiful music. His string arrangements have such a nice flow and harmony to them, and the musicians perform it well. I look forward to a track listing and some livelier selections. Thinking about it, I would probably go crazy trying to choose only 10+ songs to put on this album.

If "people seized with life" doesn't make it, I will cry giant tears.

Heh, my favorite as well.  Let's hope it makes it.

I'm disappointed too. I don't mind that Mitsuda went down a conventional route and I like the idea of a sedate string quartet interpretation.  But that has to be some of the most simplistic and derivative string quartet writing I've heard, even for game music. Hopefully the rest of the album will be more colourful.

Dreams of the Shore Bordering Another World for me. Really, any track arranged from Cross would be amazing.

Considering it was attached to the "Merry Christmas" Flash snowfall picture, there is a possibility that is might just be an Xmas song ONLY, not a preview of the album....  unless any of the text says otherwise with more details.

Well even the English says it's from CC Arrange Album.  The Japanese just says that the album the song is from hasn't been released.  I think it's a pretty safe bet the song will be on the album.

It's funny how when CT Brink of Time came out, people were expecting an orchestral album and complained about how unconventional it was (for a VGM album at the time).  And now that CC Arrange Album is coming out many years later we might be seeing the opposite.  Kind of shows how people's tastes have changed since then.

I like the sample. The original was pretty simplistic to begin with and I like the transition to the string ensemble. Of course, there will probably be a lot more color on the rest of the album, but for what was shown, I like it.

Heh, now I feel silly, my short term memory remembered the picture the next day but not the words.

I've got to be honest... I listened to that track on the website and don't even remember it from the OST.  It is nice enough sounding, though.  Am I the only one here who's hoping that this album goes more the direction of Creid rather than Brink of Time or orchestral?  That's got to be one of my favorite arranged albums of all time, as far as style.

I'm still loving the hell out of that sample.  I NEED MORE!!

The sample is okay...I don't recognize the track it's based off of though.

What!?  Tell me more!

I mentioned it in the VIDEO GAMES 2008 thread, but there's a new attainable ending detailing Magus' and Schala's fates.  As a CC tie-in, it's apt -- but as you'd expect, it's depressing as hell.

The song is from disc two, track two.  I believe it is entitled End of Dimension.

David

Whoops, missed that.  Thanks for the info!  I just watched a youtube video of it... nifty stuff.  Watching it *almost* made me want to play the game again, but I have about a dozen unfinished RPGs in my to-do pile so $40 for a game I already own and have played isn't going to happen any time soon.

Am I listening to the new Dragon Quest soundtrack, or an actual Chrono Cross Arrange piece?!

I'm sorry, it's a nice piece, very good quality in and of itself, but orchestral/chamber isn't what comes to mind when I think of Chrono Cross.

I was hoping for some acoustic, islandic-styled goodness, essentially "beefed up" versions of the originals with improvisation.

Or, otherwise, "Island of the Dead (Pagan Mix)." I mean, a Chrono Cross CLUB Arrange album?! You know you want it...

This's giving me notions of something cold, rather than of something warm.

P.S. Angela, thanks for posting up the MP3 clip! I couldn't critique if you hadn't!

meh. Man up and accept that classical arrangements are straight up awesome.

Tons of people had a bitch fit over Brink of Time (CT) because it was jazzy and they wanted an orchestra album.

Now Mitsuda gets all chamber music on us and someone has to spazz over it. C'mon now...