I’ve been listening to Distant Worlds II: more music from FINAL FANTASY lately. This is the follow-up to the original Distant Worlds concert CD we proudly carried around last year after meeting the composer himself, Nobuo Uematsu.
To be clear, I loved the last CD, even after the shine of meeting one of my musical heroes wore off. It’s just a fantastic collection of Final Fantasy music played by a fantastic orchestra. But this new one? Wow. It tops the old one easily. It opens with the haunting Final Fantasy theme, “Prelude.” It starts out as always, with a harp, but then a choir comes in and brings the goosebumps.
Some highlights are this really tight version of Final Fantasy VIII‘s “Man with the Machine Gun” and Final Fantasy VI‘s “Terra’s Theme.” Of course, the best is an orchestrated version of Uematsu’s masterpiece, Final Fantasy VI‘s “Dancing Mad.”
This 13-song CD is freaking fantastic. I love it so much that I feel like there’s no way I can convey to you how great it is. This is coming from someone who buys a lot of CDs! Distant Worlds II is now on every device I own that plays music and will stay that way for a long time. you can download a copy for yourself for $9.99 at the Distant Worlds webpage.
The concert is also back for a second round with this “more music” collection. They’re coming to the United States this summer. Ask anyone that’s ever been — it’s an experience of a lifetime for anyone that loves games and their music. You’ll find dates for upcoming concerts below the jump.
- Stockholm – June 12 – 2010
- San Francisco – July 15 & 16 – 2010
- Houston – July 24 – 2010
- San Diego – July 22 – 2010
- Washington, D.C. – July 30 – 2010
- Chicago – August 1 – 2010
- Toronto – Nov 27 – 2010
