Takayuki Nakamura. You might know the name if you want to give Lumines a high five, paid attention to the soundtrack credits during Ninety-Nine Nights, or happen to be an extremely ardent Columns II fan. The Japanese composer is known for electronic beats and thought-provoking symphonic sounds, and he’s at it again with Who Will Leave This Land.
It’s a weird mesh of different sources, this new album, but the tracks have a similar sound– or a similar soul, if you want to get dramatic. The track for which the collection is named comes from a graphic/audio novel called Eneshift Interviews, which that delves into social commentary concerning the ramifications of Tokyo’s nuclear energy after the natural disasters of 2011. The other notable track is Holiday Machine, which will back the demonstration to the new fighting game engine EF-12 this Tokyo Game Show, which makes perfect sense considering Nakamura’s contribution to the original Virtua Fighter soundtracks. Everything else is original material, bringing the count up to ten songs. There are some real gems in there, so it’s worth poking around– Eneshift especially stood out to me.
And hey, good news for creators: Who Will Leave This Land is being released under a creative commons attribution license, so you don’t need to worry about Brainstorm– the label producing Takayuki’s work– taking you to court for using the music in your touching documentary on whether or not Columns II was superior to its predecessor.
If you want to get listening, head over to iTunes and do just that. Oh, and in case you forgot that Lumines has cool music, here’s a reminder. (Please listen in HD if you have a heart.)
Comments