Mistilteinn – the wisdom of the mistletoes

Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy is a concert tour featuring music from the Final Fantasy video game series that began touring on December, 4 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden. It is aimed to become a worldwide tour and one of its stops was Singapore. By sheer luck, I was able to get a ticket on it at a fairly cheap price apart from various minor disturbances with the seating place. But yeah, It was definitely one of the best concerts that I went to.

I managed to get a T-Shirt with its imprints in the sale outside the hall, and I do intend to amazon the cd once i get my debit card since they amazingly ran out of CDs 20 minutes into the sale ( zzz no more Uematsu Signature). But here are the highlights of the show below ( with youtube videos!)

Highlights

1) Liberi Fatali ( VIII)

The opening of Final Fantasy VIII, Liberi Fatali was used in the Olympics 04 as a synchro-swimming piece by USA. In short, the lyrics is somewhat a hymn of some sort calling upon the children of fate to ascend into the world. Being a fanatic of VIII since It was technically my first game, I have listened to Liberi Fatali for dozens of time, and it was replicated in the exact same way as I heard it a long time ago that very day. Its impactful and refreshing style was a very great Ouverture.

2.  To Zanarkand ( X )

Nowadays, Its hard to find FF Fans that are young, simply because a lot of these games have been released while we are like kindergarten or Primary schools. ( VII was produced in 97, VIII in 99 and X in 01). While VIII was my 1st offical FF game, I must say the 1st FF song i liked was this one from Final Fantasy X. I first chanced upon this song looking for a decent song in my neopets shop in 04, and I did fell in love with this song for quite a long time ( the other being melody of life from IX). To date, It has retained its dramatic sense of emotion and a tinge of sadness. Even though I couldn’t get X to work on a ps2 emulator ( It demanded insane amounts of memory and ram which my laptop couldn’t feed), I still like this song, a representation of my lost childhood i suppose.

3.  Aerith’s Theme ( VII)

I’ve been trying to do a run of VII-VIII-IX recently, I am still currently at end disc I where Aerith is semi dying. So this song does vaguely ring in my ears somewhat; I didn’t really know what it was until i listened a bit though. Even so, this theme was done brilliantly well in the sense that it had a cute feel to it in spite of being emotional. It’s just a little naivety in a country girl; a tone very befitting of Aerith, She can be cute too I suppose, just that I do prefer Tifa more.

4.Ronfaure ( XI )

If i wasn’t wrong, this was a newly added piece in the SIngapore show, hence I had to show u a version from the Tour of Japon instead, not that the quality is any worse. Now, Many people didn’t really know there was a FF XI at all, and since it was a Pay to play MMO, I didnt really had the cash to do so. But, I was very very impressed by Ronfaure as a whole. It was a very alive piece of music, with a little melancholy yet sense of hope. I wouldn’t advise you to play XI though, I heard this game world of Vana Diel is so insane you have to literally not have a life to even get an okay rank.

5. Opening – Bombing Mission (VII)

I couldn’t show you a recording this time because everyone filmed a substandard version of it. But Right after the intermission i was jolted awake again. It’s quite amazing that the people on the stage can make this as real as the original opening like Liberi Fatali, and I wasn’t even a big fan of this song mind you. Its starts slow at first, but it intensifies and then suddenly spirals like the end, just like things going back in a full circle. I liked that.

6.  Fisherman’s Horizon (VIII)

I’ve always liked FH. It was a very underrated piece, to the point I only realised it after a program called VOD in a maternal cousin’s house in Medan. I grew to like it for its sheer simplicity and beauty, as i really liked songs that are simple and clean. This version is different in that they have done the similar tune in a new style,and the choir backing the tune up was a very great way of boosting the melody, as this song was a very melody based song. I was very touched by this song overall.

7. Memoro de la Stono (XI)

I didn’t want to show substandard piece again; this one had lyrics. Except for the fact that the vocalist was terrible,horrible and incorrigible in the Singapore tour unlike the one in this youtube video, I actually liked this song a lot too, as I found the Lyrics quite meaningful in a sense. Note that the actual lyrics start halfway in the song.

Seas invite in the evening sun

to light the somber abyss.

Clouds dance up with the heavens’ stars,

chanting an air of joyous bliss.

Water fades back from blue to jade,

guiding young rainbows high.

Flowers bloom into red and whites,

quenching our hearts when they run dry.

Angels chained by a beast locked in slumber.

Sin washed away by the swift flow of time.

I may know the answers.

Journeys over snow and sand.

What twist in fate has brought us

to tread upon this land?

Blessed by light and the burden of shadow.

Souls abide to an endless desire.

I may know the answers,

though one question I still hear.

What twist in fate has brought us

to roads that run so near?

Distant worlds together.

Miracles from realms beyond.

The lifelight burns inside me

to sing to you this song.

To sing with you this song.

To sing to you your song.

8. Love Grows( VIII)

Since Faye wasn’t there to sing Eyes on Me, they did an instruemntal version of it which was labelled as Love Grows in the game. Thank god they did, having the stupid soprano to sing eyes on me would kill the song. Personally, I like this because I am a fan of the game and a fan of the song, and I know it has this original taste of eyes on me inside. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be popular though.Then again, I never go with the flow.

9. One Winged Angel(VII)

The final encore of the concert. I was pretty shocked when I didn’t see this in the brochure, because this song is so famous you can’t call yourself a FF fan if you have never heard it before. The anguish of Sephiroth was portrayed very strongly in the song, I suppose the choir did a very good job here. What a great way to end the concert I say!

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