Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed / Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed / Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed

Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed
Album freely available at http://sirens.ocremix.org


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Directors
ï William Harby (WillRock)
ï Emery Monzerol (DaMonz)

Artwork
ï Roxanne Chartrand
   - http://artstation.com/artist/roxannechartrand
ï David Lloyd (djpretzel) - logo

Website
ï David Lloyd (djpretzel)

Trailer
ï JosÈ E. Felix (JosÈ the Bronx Rican)

Executive Producers
ï David W. Lloyd (djpretzel)
ï Larry Oji (Liontamer)

This album is freely available online and is not being distributed for profit.

It features 14 tracks from 14 artists, arranged from the soundtrack of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for the Game Boy Color, in celebration of the re-release of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch. It was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo; all images, characters, and original compositions are copyright their respective owners.

This album was produced to help promote video game music, the amazing compositions of Kozue Ishikawa and Minako Hamano (with special thanks to Koji Kondo), and the talented musical and visual artists that contributed to this project.


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Comments from album directors William Harby (WillRock) & Emery Monzerol (DaMonz), and ReMixers

  Right after we finished Mirror Image, we already half-jokingly talked about making another Zelda album at some point. As soon as the Link's Awakening remaster for the Nintendo Switch was announced, we realised now was the perfect time to do the album.

  Link's Awakening is very special to us, and we wanted to show the depth of our appreciation of the game and its music by releasing an arrangement album simultaneously with the remaster. This album was very much a labour of love, and we hope that translates to the finished product!

  We'd like to thank djpretzel, Liontamer, and OverClocked ReMix for releasing this album, Roxanne Chartrand for creating incredible artwork, José the Bronx Rican for doing the awesome trailer, and all the amazing remixers on the project who helped make this dream a reality.

- William Harby (WillRock) & Emery Monzerol (DaMonz)


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M-01. WillRock, DaMonz - "The Legend of Marin"
Source: "Field"

WillRock: This one was cooked up literally at the last minute when the source was dropped on the day of the deadline. Due to us trying to release for the day the game came out, DaMonz and I decided to tackle the theme together, and... yeah, I kinda ended up dominating it. I was listening to a lot of John Sykes (Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake) and wanted to go all out, but the tempo required didn't fit, so I decided to boost the tempo and go a bit nuts at the end. Completely unnecessary, but why not?


M-02. Tom Janes feat. PROTO·DOME - "Head South to the Beach"
Sources: "When Link First Wakes," "Koholint Island"

Tom Janes: I decided to go for an all-live recording, playing all the parts except the EWI solo, for which I recruited the talents of Blake "PROTO·DOME" Troise.

When coming up with the arrangement, I took inspiration from Ocarina of Time. I was going for a sort of "Zora's Domain" chilled-out vibe, and then a bit of "Gerudo Valley" for contrast, imagining how the music would work as the theme in these different contexts.

Shout out to Bradley Jordan for helping mix the whole thing.


M-03. PROTO·DOME - "Mah Boi"
Source: "Mabe Village"

WillRock: Blake is one of those people who constantly delivers, and as expected, he brought his signature jazzy chiptune stylings to the iconic "Mabe Village" track. However, this one goes a step further than the typical PROTO·DOME offering, throwing in progressive arrangement ideas, including an awesome 7/4 section, and some really creative change-ups, and even has an extended slowed down outro right when you think the track has finished.

This has everything that makes a PROTO·DOME track great, but pushes things up by a level by taking things in unique and cool directions. Great stuff.

PROTO·DOME: So, the Mabe Village theme is great -- one of my favourites -- but it's really short. There was a lot of extrapolating to do, hence the 7/4 prog-jazz nonsense. Here's a cool tip I learned while writing this: if you play the Lydian scale of the home key over a 9sus4 on the fifth (in this case, F# Lydian over C#13sus4, heard at 3:46), it sounds damn cool!


M-04. DDRKirby(ISQ) - "Domain of Darkness"
Source: "Mysterious Forest"; Cameos: Super Mario 64 - "Koopa's Theme," Super Mario RPG - "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms," Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - "Lost Woods," Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - "Forest"

DDRKirby(ISQ): "Mysterious Forest" is such a cool and groovy track, oozing with atmosphere! My 9-bit interpretation of it retains its ubiquitous bassline while exploring a bunch of different musical directions. The part at 2:14, for example, brings in some sinister chords inspired by the "Bowser Battle" theme from Super Mario 64, and the harmony section at 4:02 references multiple other "mysterious forest" themes -- in order: the "Forest Maze" theme from Super Mario RPG, the "Lost Woods" theme from Ocarina of Time, and the "Lost Woods" theme from A Link to the Past. The whole "lost woods" trope is ubiquitous among video games, so I thought it would be kind of cool to envision all of these forests as actually being interconnected... a place where you can get so lost that you even end up in the wrong game! If you listen closely, you might hear some percussion techniques borrowed from Mega Man and Shovel Knight as well. I hope you enjoy the mishmash of different elements!


M-05. Yoann Turpin - "Animal's Avenue"
Source: "Animal Village"

WillRock: I'm going to be quite frank -- I'm not a huge fan of the "Animal Village" source tune. It always felt a bit like a 15-second throwaway of the overworld theme that got rather monotonous quite fast.

However, saying Yoann Turpin knocked this one out of the park isn't doing it justice -- he knocked it straight to the moon. He managed to keep the mischievous and playful feel of the original but keeps it from getting boring by having it constantly evolve. It goes from playful to epic to funky in a flash, with Celtic influences sprinkled about that remind of Wind Waker, and even finds time to throw in some Egyptian-sounding runs before going into a jazzy piano solo.

This takes "Animal Village" to so many places, all in the span of 3 minutes, while staying cohesive and keeping a natural flow to the arrangement. I'm not sure you could take a 15-second source and do much more with it. Bravo.

Yoann Turpin: I wanted to picture both sides of the Animal Village: their solemn side, and their impish side!


M-06. RebeccaETripp - "Abyssal Reverie"
Sources: "Dream Shrine," "Faerie Spring," "Boss Defeated," "Instrument Catch," "Owl"

RebeccaETripp: "Abyssal Reverie" means "highly suggestible state." It implies a kind of trance-like mode of consciousness, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. In this miniature medley, which is in part a revised "new age" excerpt from my "Link's Awakening Epic Orchestral Medley," I wanted to convey such modes of consciousness via sound. The music is, therefore, mysterious, playful, strange, and at times unsettling, not unlike a dream.

I chose themes that I felt were reminiscent of classical stories about mermaids, sirens, faeries, and other magical (usually, though not always) feminine apparitions of illusion and beauty. I think on one level Link's Awakening is a story about a mind being momentarily led astray, and then eventually finding its way back into consciousness. It's a story of a hapless dreamer discovering transcendent "truth" in the midst of fiction. For this reason, I chose to "wake" the dreamer at the end, by resolving most (though not all) of the "tension."


M-07. bLiNd - "Tal Tal Future"
Source: "Tal Tal Heights"

bLiNd: "Tal Tal Heights" has always been a favorite of many people. I wanted to touch on it years ago but never knew what genre to do but drum and bass because of its tempo. Enter future bass. Steven Silo, a side project of mine that's future bass-oriented, is something I worked on in 2015-2016 and this beat was a track in the works then. Just happens to work well with "Tal Tal Heights." The only difference is the bass is more dubsteppy which is why it's a bLiNd track. Enjoyable to make, hope you like it!


M-08. Chimpazilla - "Imprisoned"
Source: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX - "Color Dungeon"

Chimpazilla: I was very happy to be invited to Will's and Emery's Link's Awakening album! I especially like this dungeon theme and I felt like the track would sound cool as a dark drum and bass mix.


M-09. WillRock feat. XPRTNovice - "'To the Finder...'"
Sources: "Face Shrine," "The Tail Cave," "The Bottle Grotto," "Tal Tal Heights," "Key Cavern," "Angler's Tunnel," "Catfish's Maw"
Words by Yoshiaki Koizumi, Kensuke Tanabe

WillRock: So, this is a remix I've wanted to do for a few years. I remember basically "telling" DaMonz we were going to direct this album and honestly, this track was one of my main reasons for wanting to do it. I always had this idea of making a dark, atmospheric, and super-progressive dungeon medley. It was also important to put the Southern Shrine tablet prophecy as a narration, and Joe Zieja did a better job than I ever dared hope for.

So, from the beginning, I'd claimed all the dungeon sources, but for a long time, I didn't do anything. Then DaMonz started his own medley, which ended up being "The Waker's Tale" on the album, and he asked me if he could use the "Tail Cave" theme to start off his mix. My idea was obviously very similar to this and while contemplating how to combat this issue, I had an idea of an organ sound fashioned after "Child in Time" by Deep Purple, which laid the foundation for this becoming a very progressive 70s-inspired romp, not unlike Genesis or Yes.


M-10. Doc Nano - "Le Mystère du Poisson-Rêve"
Source: "Ballad of the Wind Fish"

DaMonz: Even though his work is always of outstanding quality, I believe Doc Nano is mostly known for his amazing piano arrangements. "Le Mystère du Poisson-Rêve" is a beautiful demonstration of this strength of Alex. The arrangement begins with a lot of tension and mystery, with the Wind Fish theme played in minor and accompanied by a slowly evolving ostinato. The tension is then eventually masterfully released as the ostinato transforms into beautiful, lush arpeggi. The piece then finally brings back some of the mystery with a final variation of the theme. It's a concise, beautiful story that draws a beautiful portrait of the Wind Fish.

Doc Nano: As the title suggests, I was aiming for a mysterious, ethereal tone when writing this arrangement, somewhat in the vein of some of Ravel's piano works. The main theme of "Ballad of the Wind Fish" is alternately presented in its original minor-scale (Dorian) form and a melodic major-scale variant, which I hope contributes to a sense of grandeur that suits the track's namesake.


M-11. DaMonz, Trainbeat feat. Christine Giguère - "The Waker's Tale"
Sources: "The Tail Cave," "Miniboss Battle," "Boss Battle," "Ballad of the Wind Fish," "Wind Fish's Egg," "Shadow Battles," "Shadows Defeated," "Song of Awakening"

DaMonz: First of all, I want to say that this remix was in no small part made possible by my recent purchase of the Modern & Massive library from GetGood Drums. The drums have been very central in my creation process for a large portion of the arrangement, and having that powerful sound right out of the box definitely enabled things that I don't think I could have done without that library.

Although, even with such a great asset, this remix was one of the most difficult tracks I've ever made (if not *the* most difficult). There was a lot of doubt, a lot of struggle to find ideas, a lot of reworking and overhauling. Making this was a huge battle... which is quite fitting, considering the nature of the track. :)

In the end though, everything made sense when I got the beautiful cello recordings from my mother Christine, and when Trainbeat sent me the amazing, rocking guitar tracks. I'm extremely grateful for their help on this monster track. The end result is ridiculously better than it would have been without them.


M-12. Yoann Turpin - "Wind Fish Limbo"
Sources: "Player Select," "Song of Awakening"

Yoann Turpin: I wondered what musical style would suit this theme on an island, and limbo seemed appropriate.


M-13. Lemonectric - "Marin's Mambo"
Sources: "Manbo's Mambo," "End Credits"

DaMonz: Lemonectric's music never ceases to surprise me, in a very, very good way. His arrangements always have clever twists that I never learn to expect, and that's always what I like the most about them. Their level of creativity is always off the charts, and this track is no exception. I love just how *fun* this arrangement sounds with all the syncopated writing and the beautiful chiptune/organic blend. To me, it feels like a playful and relaxed celebration, which makes perfect sense for the end credits.

Lemonectric: I set out to arrange the credits theme in the style of the secret file select music, and it turned into a little medley. It's a habit.


M-14. WillRock - "'Why Is the Island Gone?'"
Sources: "Opening Demo," "Title," "Player Select," "When Link First Wakes," "Koholint Island," "Owl," "Sword Catch," Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - "He's a Pirate," Nightmare Lair Underground," "Rescue BowWow," "Ballad of the Wind Fish," Cowboy Bebop - "Tank!"

WillRock: All I'll say about this one is that I'd rather not spoil anything by talking about it. Just know it took a long time, a lot of effort, and Shnabubula deserves a shout-out for helping inspire it.