For years now, Pokémon fans have been desperately hoping for a remake of the series' fourth generation games, Diamond and Pearl. While we can't offer you that, we do have news of the next best thing.
Pokémon fan and musical marvel Braxton Burks is back with another orchestral take on the beloved franchise, this time with a new album 'Time & Space'. It follows on from their previous Billboard-charting Pokémon albums including Johto Legends and Kanto Symphony, but this time focuses on the soundtrack of Diamond and Pearl.
"The soundtrack to the games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl marked a large departure from Game Freak's typical music production style, which up to that point had mostly been constrained by the low fidelity instruments of the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance era," Burks says.
"With the Nintendo DS hardware came room for the composers to write music with higher quality synths, electronics, and drums, expanding their palette to encompass a broad range of genres. This inspired me to experiment with my own palette and break orchestration conventions for Time & Space. Instead of writing pure orchestral versions of themes, I opted for a more hybrid approach: using percussion, synths, and other non-orchestral instruments to complement the acoustic elements of my pieces and adding further depth to the base arrangements."
You can take a sneaky listen to some tracks already below:
The album's out fully on 22nd November but can be pre-ordered now through Bandcamp. You'll also find a physical CD option, which comes as a 6-panel digipak with holographic foil stamping.
Are you a fan of Diamond and Pearl's soundtrack? Are these new versions giving you happy flashbacks to the good old days? Let us know with a comment below.
Comments 27
Ooh, DPPt had my favourite soundtracks so this seems pretty cool. I think they’re the highest rated on RYM too so it’s not just me.
This might quell my hunger for official remastered DPP music. DPP has my favorite Pokemon soundtrack, so waiting for the eventual remake is difficult.
Remember that route that was literally just 21 guns?
I hardly remember any music from D/P/Pt, I'm afraid. It was definitely the Pokemon games with the least memorable music. That's not to say I didn't like the games (I liked them much more than R/S/E), but the OST was just...there and that was disappointing compared to the first three generations, which were full to the brim of great music.
@PBandSmelly Route 209? It made me think more of ELO's Telephone Line.
@Harmonie
Oh, that too
@Harmonie
Well, you gotta admit cynthia's theme is amazing
Good music, kinda makes me sad at the prospect of a remake, though. If ORAS and SwSh are any indication, they'll cut loads
@PBandSmelly I remember waayyy back in 2008 when I finally got to play Diamond, I was regularly listening to a station that played music from the 70s, and that station played Telephone Line. Because of that Route 209 became memorable for me.
I can't remember a single theme from the game aside from that, though.
I believe Carlos Eiene (insaneintherainmusic) has also spent this year uploading jazz covers of Gen IV's music. It's been a good year for Diamond/Pearl/Platinum fans, at least for music. I hope a remake is coming in the near future; one that at least won't go through the same drama that's plagued SwSh this year.
Cool....can I have the game remade instead?...No?...Okay....
@KayFiOS if you didn't mention it already then I would of; always trying to spread the good word of Insane in the Rain!!
For those of you into videogame soundtracks in general, his channel is an absolute treasure trove
@ERIC_MACK Ngl, I kinda hope Carlos will get to work on a soundtrack for a game some day. It happened for his friends, Adriana Figueroa and Jules Conroy, who both contributed to the soundtracks for Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule.
So now we need the DS equivalent of the MSU1/MD+/Mode1.
@KayFiOS I think it's inevitable, especially with all the success he seems to be having at berkley right now.
Surely GameFreak will give us an official remake in the next couple of years, yes?
I mean, unless they again decide to "surprise" us by skipping it.
(and they want to deny the world top waifu in high-definition, it's time to turn in your Super Nerd cards, GameFreak )
@YourGoodFriendly
Yeah I don’t know if I trust Gamefreak anymore to remake the best generation.
Love this! I think diamond and pearl have some of the best music in the series!
Will this soundtrack also be on iTunes?
@Harmonie I didn't press A to start the battle with Cynthia for nearly 10 minutes, just listened to her piano solo for a long time. Probably the most emotional I've ever gotten over a Pokemon song.
Meh. Sounds like a vapid movie soundtrack.
This soundtrack is amazing, and it really paints the feeling I had while playing these when I was younger.
I really hope the potential D/P remakes are able to have a similar feeling to these tracks and have a sense of beauty and wonder of there being something greater like the original games captured.
yeeeeeeeeeeeee
I remember breaking down in tears during the Symphonic Evolutions concert when the DP music started. Gen 4 holds many personal memories for me, as well as being my favorite gen of all, and the music tracks are my favorites. And considering a fair few tracks made it into the anime adaptation (Again, fav period of the anime), it just becomes more and more memorable.
I'm really hoping the remake is next year's game. Its waaaaaay too soon for a 3rd version/sequel/Ultra Sun Ultra Moon of SWSH, I got extremely burnt out on Gen 7 thanks to USUM. If anything, a remake would at least appeal to the nostalgic crowd complaining about SWSH, would probably have around 400-ish Pokemon like SWSH (DPPT had 493 Pokemon, so close enough.) and the anime has Ash and co exploring all the past regions, so fitting in a Sinnoh arc in the new series would be easy to do and promote the hell outta the remakes.
Cynthia's theme dude... One of the best video game tracks around!
I've played Pokemon since the very beginning. I remember every single Pokemon game release and I've played all the main series games. Diamond and Pearl were very special games in this series.
It's the last game in the series that needs a remake in my opinion.
Commenting a year late but I came across this on spotify last night and man, I might have cried a little. I got platinum from my cousin in fifth grade as my first pokemon game. Can't believe it's been 6 years since my first journey.
@Deege I'd say black and white as well. Last really explorable map
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