This was a very, very long time in the making.
Table of contents:
00:00 Main Theme
01:47 Phosphophyllite
03:05 Cinnabar
04:07 What is This!
04:59 Awakening Power
07:04 Deep in the Sea
08:38 Ventricosus
09:59 Isolation
11:25 Breaking
13:08 Loss
13:33 Ice Floe
13:53 Unreachable
15:35 liquescimus
16:48 The End of Winter
17:48 Decision
18:48 Memories
20:44 Phos and Cinnabar
23:37 Waves in the Mirror (Kyoumen no Nami) Orchestral Ver.

I have a handful of projects that haunt me for literal years until I complete them. This is one of them. I believe I must have first attempted it about 5 years ago, and I gave up on it pretty quickly, even though I loved the soundtracks so much. It was too difficult for me at the time.

Now fast forward to November 2023 when I finally decided I’d sit down and write the medley for real this time, encouraged that I now had some more transcribing experience under my belt and have done similar projects (like Rebellion!). I dug up my first transcriptions and they were terrible LOL so I started everything from scratch.

Two weeks later I had something I could play off of. Suddenly, I found I could hear those tricky harmonies much better, and the layers too! Progress is a wondrous thing. I recorded Kyoumen no Nami a few years ago and working on it again for this medley I realized I straight up misheard some harmonies then.

I have to say though, this might be one of the most difficult medleys I’ve done. Actually, it might be the most difficult one. It took me 4 months to learn and I still find some bits super hard - the larger part that starts at 1:58 is already very tricky, it took me forever. 5:00 - ALL of Awakening Power is ridiculous, 7:21 Deep in the Sea has a very tricky right hand, 10:55 is absurdly hard to memorize for some reason and also took me forever, the battle themes, Breaking and Unreachable, are both pretty hard for different reasons, though those were on purpose. I figured I should struggle for the battle themes LOL. Kyoumen no Nami is difficult but I adore it so practicing it was pure joy.

SPECIAL SHOUTOUT to 12:08, if you have an acoustic instrument at home, I cant stress enough how satisfying those left hand jumps/chords are. They reverberate through your soul and the recording doesn’t do it justice. I love that part.

As for Houseki no Kuni the show - it’s one of my favorites of all time, I don’t think I need to say much here. It’s amazing in every way and I arranged this medley thinking of it very carefully. I’m up to date with the manga (it’s ending next month) and what a ride it’s been.

The video is made out of two major takes I did one after another split and glued together 4 times because this one is just unreasonable to play perfectly until the end with limited recording time. I almost did get a perfect take the first time around, until the second-to-last track when my brain suddenly said, “Actually, you should forget how to read sheet music right about now. I don’t care that you practically know this by heart either.” I kept making such silly mistakes I decided I need a break before continuing lol. The other time dog decided to make noise.

See you next piece!

Music by Yoshiaki Fujisawa
Arranged by me(I’ll share the sheet music soon!)

Shoutout to the commenter who asked why I don't record in 4k. The answer is: because I didn't realize I could. This one's for you.

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