Composer Hiroki Kikuta is responsible for some of the best gaming soundtracks ever, with Seiken Densetsu II (Secret of Mana), Seiken Densetsu III and Koudelka under his belt.
He's currently creating music for the Kickstarter title Indivisible by Lab Zero Games, but he has found the time to produce not one but two new albums, collaborating with fellow Japanese musicians Hidehisa Sasaki and Aahiro.
ANGELICFORTRESS and ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX are two five-track albums which "combine Kikuta's love for progressive rock, jazz fusion, and game music", calling upon inspirations such as Yes, Pink Floyd (in the case of ANGELICFORTRESS) and Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea (for ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX).
Both albums are available on Bandcamp as we speak. Here's the PR:
Tokyo, Japan - January 31, 2017 - Composer Hiroki Kikuta is pleased to present two original albums to fans in the form of ANGELICFORTRESS and ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX. ANGELICFORTRESS is an album series created to combine Kikuta's love for progressive rock, jazz fusion, and game music as well as to say thank you to patrons of music around the world.
ANGELICFORTRESS is a progressive rock-style album, inspired by Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP, and more. It features Hiroki Kikuta (composer), Hidehisa Sasaki (guitar), and Teruhiko Imaizumi (artist).
ANGELICFORTRESS DOUBLE HELIX is a jazz fusion-style album, inspired by Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Dave Grusin and more. It features Hiroki Kikuta (composer), Hidehisa Sasaki (guitar), and Aahiro (artist).
"I was exposed to an endless catalog of awesome progressive rock and jazz fusion albums throughout high school," explains Kikuta. "It had the biggest impact on the formulation of my view of the musical world. Now I want to mix up these genres with modern day videogame music. ANGELICFORTRESS is an exciting experiment in musical history. I also want to develop an attitude of thankfulness to people who support music in general, so all of these tracks can be thought of as a thank you offering."
Kikuta is currently in the process of forming an entire band to perform the third album in the series, ANGELICFORTRESS TRISMEGISTUS.
What do you think of these albums? Have a listen and let us know with a comment.
Comments 14
Angel's delight.
Devil's delight.
I like what I hear so far! Will have to check out more of his work sometime.
Secret of Mana is one of my favourite games ever and the soundtrack is a big part of that. This is pretty cool.
Side note, we really need some type of Mana collection for the Switch!
Having played through Secret of Mana and a bit of Seiken Dentetsu 3 I can attest to the quality of those games' soundtracks even if I don't really find the games itself anything that special anymore.
After giving these tracks a small listen, I can easily hear his old style from those games coming through, though this style is a bit too "hardcore" for my tastes sadly.
Checking this out for sure.
That reminds me, Secret of Mana was never upgraded to the WiiU VC. Anyway, definitely checking out the album.
Prog rock.....and.....jazz......mixed together? So, basically djent? (For those who don't know what "djent" is, look it up look).
@Senpai_Bruh Not mixed (Djent sounds cool, though); one album is Prog (rock mixed with Classical and/or World instruments, textures, rhythms, or lyrics) and the other album is Fusion (jazz with rock-infused instruments and elements). Both genres are characteristic of 1970s-80s "indie" music, and the man is stylistically too diverse to stick to just one genre for too long, it seems. Both albums should be good in their own way if you like Mana's varied atmospheric music.
Love those influences, I think I might give this a go!
@samuelvictor Somebody got it!
@Gauchorino I love Mana's soundtrack! Thanks for explaining the music to me. Most times when I hear "prog rock and jazz" I think of Djent because a lot of people describe Djent's as sounding like a fusion of those two.
@Senpai_Bruh Glad to help, friend. Thanks to you for mentioning Djent. I hadn't heard of it before. Those are my two favorite genres, coincidentally, so I'm quite interested.
@Gauchorino You're welcome! By the way, it's not like "prog rock with jazz music", it's more like "thrash metal, with jazz and prog rock influences." It's one of my favorite genres of music next to regular metal (bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Pantera and the like), classical, blues, and alt-rock.
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