Nobuo Uematsu selected 16 pieces for the 'N Generation' compilation to represent his best work from games prior to the Final Fantasy most people started with here in the USA, Final Fantasy 7. Thanks to choice releases for PSone last year, we were able to enjoy some of the earlier games, but many of the musical roots of the series remain lost to newer gamers. In this recording, you'll hear many of the themes that have popped up again and again in the most recent games, forming a regular palette Uematsu draws from in his compositions. Obviously, the early game music was a far cry from the stuff we have available today. Mechanical reproduction, recording and storage technology is so far advanced from the time that gamers first heard Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy from Final Fantasy 1, but the strength of the music back then was not diminished. Partly because of the greatly expanded resources available with the popularity of Final Fantasy and mostly because more Final Fantasy music is always a good thing, this CD features 'arranged' pieces performed in orchestral and choral settings. The result may not ring true to ears expecting many 2 or 3 minute excerpts performed as in the original game, but remember: This is not an OST!
If you know anything about arranging, you'll realize the impressive work done by Uematsu and others to bring music from synthesizers and computers to living, breathing musicians. Even though you may not know much about classical music - and this stuff leans toward that side quite heavily due to instrumentation - think about rock or jazz. There are always a few different versions of most rock songs, and jazz is full of 'standards' fleshed out for trios, quartets and big bands. Well, here Uematsu gathered multiple groups ranging from large studio orchestras with strings, brass and woodwinds to smaller vocal groups and choral accompaniment. Then, he took the songs that he chose to work with, stripped them down to their essence, and created new versions for these live ensembles. The results are incredible, and even if you never play Final Fantasy, you'll be able to appreciate the musicianship displayed both in performance, composition and arrangement for this collection. There's a roughly chronological progression through each of the Final Fantasy games, but Final Fantasy 5 gets the lion's share of space on the CD. Listening to the music in this instrumentation, it struck me more than ever how much Uematsu must have drawn influence from Impressionists like Debussy and Ravel when writing, since his themes fall easily into the dreaming, lush string soundscapes so familiar from those composers' works. But, with the introduction of more modern and Celtic themes, one is likely to hear Uematsu as drawing from many sources and in fact finding the original voice under all this. He isn't trying to be the old man of videogame music, nor does he go quite as far toward the modern bent as someone like Yoko Kanno. But, hearing this work played as 'art' music, separated almost completely from any context of gaming, it's safe to say that Uematsu deserves respect not just from the gaming community but the larger musical community. His style for these early games was a rejection of flashy electronica or bouncy pop in favor of melodies that could have slipped out of Debussy's sketchbook, made to represent more simple times and a land populated by monsters and magic users instead of taxis and take-out pizza.
Settle down to listen through in one stretch and you'll come away with a new appreciation for Nobuo Uematsu. Not only are the melodies written for these early games enduring, but the new arrangements add a dimension that will thrill fans or non-fans alike. It may not be OST, but Final Fantasy N Generation is some of the best gaming music to be featured on a CD. Period.
