Hideki Sakamoto put on a fantastic concert on Sunday that was broadcast live on uStream. The concert, which contained a full orchestra, performed arranged renditions from the Echochrome series. Possibly the best music with the most generic names, so much so that I can’t actually remember which tune is which, the concert was absolutely perfect. Having the string quartet expanded into a full orchestra gave all the tracks extra depth and emotion while Sakamoto’s conducting gave us a character to relate to. I hope there’s plans for a release as the camera work and sound was perfect during the webcast. Here’s to hoping!
Posts Tagged ‘Hideki Sakamoto’
Most Viewed April 2010
One of the possibly the only annoying thing with the changes to stats via WordPress is that I now have almost 600 visitors who visited “Home Page” and that means that these most viewed charts at the start of each month are missing 20% of the page views considering HPM get about 3000 a month. However Bredan Perry stays on top again, although only just this month as his tour got underway and we posted live clips of all the new songs on his tour. I’m so excited for the new album! Most viewed post though was strangely a review from last year, Echochrome’s OST! Is it because Echoshift’s making waves I wonder? Here’s the top 10 viewed artists…
01) Brendan Perry (3 months!)
02) Keith Burgan & Blake Reynolds (NE)
03) Tom Salta (NE)
04) Hideki Sakamoto (-)
05) Lisa Gerrard (v)
06) Jesper Kyd (-)
07) Garry Schyman (v)
08) Ayumi Hamasaki (v)
09) Normand Corbiel (^)
10) Yoko Shimomura (RE)
Top 5 Games
01) RTL Winter Sports (2 Months)
02) Vancouver 2010 (NE)
03) Battle Tanks (-)
04) Musaic Box (-)
05) Numblast (RE)
Most Viewed March 2010
It’s been a while since we’ve had such a huge runaway winner on our most viewed list, but March 2010 saw Brendan Perry overdrive as his tour kicked off and his new songs were revealed! Not only that, but March saw Higher Plain Music far surpass its previous most busy month ever (last month actually) by a whopping 600 views! I’d like to send a massive thanks to every reader and I hope you continue to stay with me. So without further ado, the top 10 artists and top 5 games of March…
01) Brendan Perry (2 months)
02) Lisa Gerrard (^)
03) Naoyuki Hiroko (Halo Legends Crew) (v)
04) Hideki Sakamoto (NE)
05) Garry Shyman (NE)
06) Jesper Kyd (-)
07) Ayumi Hamasaki (RE)
08) Hiroki Kikuta (RE)
09) Jeff Kinney (NE)
10) Normand Corbeil (NE)
—-
Games
01) RTL Winter Sports 2010 (ps3) (2 months)
02) Heavy Rain (PS3)
03) Battle Tanks (ps3)
04) Musaic Box (PC)
05) .detuned (PS3)
The Making of Echochrome’s Soundtrack Video
Hideki Sakimoto has surfaced on YouTube with a little video showing behind the scenes footage of making the music for Echochrome. Take a peek and see for yourself!
Hideki Sakamoto – Echochrome OST Review
The various works of Hideki Sakamoto had passed by my radar until I purchased the game “Echochrome” for the PS3. Here I was introduced to a strange yet compelling soundtrack. Entirely classical, Sakamoto takes a string quartet and puts them through their paces and the end result is beautiful.
All the songs names are called Prime # and then a number. “3″ opens with an operatic verse before “7″ serenely slides its way through like a historical period drama dance piece. It’s tinged with an ounce of sadness and abandon but with hints of grandeur about it. That sentence really sums up the majority of the soundtrack too.
“101″ is a downbeat funeral dirge at times but with a bitter-sweet edge to it that makes it appealing and some discordant verses. “19″ however is more plucky and upbeat with a chirpy bounce in its step. It also has a strong vocal string line. “313″ is much more intricate and sounds far more desperate because of it. There’s a real tension in this piece. “61″ however sounds more melancholy and sounds like it should belong in the building music to The Sims 1. It has a quirky slightly out of tune twang to it which gives “61″ a unique character.
“2″ signals part two of the soundtrack with another short operatic number before “457″ swirls in with its sweeping adagios and urgency despite never really pressing for it fully. “59″ comes across about as close to boss battle music you’ll get on this album. Some frenzied string squealing is used in between rousing chorus’. “919″ also has an upheaval sound to it, like the march of a bad guy about to explode. Again, its all on a string quartet so its down to tune and tempo and not instruments itself, however this track sticks out as a definite favourite.
“5″ is a slow ache of high pitched, long held string chords with cute transitions. “233″ is a great waltz track that although you can’t exactly waltz to its entirety, is still a fun track and the soundtrack finishes with “9973″ with features the operatic voice to conclude the set.
If you’re not a fan or traditional classical music, nor plain string quartets just doing their thing, then this is highly unlikely to convince you. I’m not a traditional classical fan and so I find this album hard to listen to in one go. However when the songs are dispersed you appreciate the sound more. The playing is fantastic and the songs, while at times are lacking a strong riff or chorus to them, never fall short of pleasant. This however is a soundtrack that purely comes down to taste. There’s no guitars, drums, bass, keyboards – only straight up classical music with no gimmicks. If you’re not put off – take the plunge.
