This should be a cool release; I'm not sure how many people know the exact premise of it, but allegedly Uematsu was asked to license FINAL FANTASY music out so that concert bands in Japan could play various pieces, not unlike the way that many high school bands perform Star Wars and Disney pieces in the United States. When I talked to Arnie Roth about it earlier this month, he said that's kept Uematsu pretty busy and is also why he hasn't made many recent New World/Distant Worlds performances.
Either way, if this is a studio record and not a live take, I think it marks the first time the classic FF main theme has ever gotten a real studio recording outside of the ending medleys in FFVIII and IX? Some of the piece choices are interesting too. I completely forgot about "Never Look Back" and "Dead End" and actually had to look them up in my library to see which game they were from. It seems like they're trying hard to bring out new pieces when they can for various arrangements and formats and I really like that.
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