Chrono Cross! Many gamers have a special fondness for this PlayStation game, and a big part of it was the original score music by Yasunori Mitsuda. Composer John Paul Hayward played the game and loved the music during his teen years, and has now composed and produced a wonderful orchestral album with his own interpretations of this music.
Part glorious game score and part ambitious film score without picture, this heartfelt tribute consists of 17 pieces, all featuring a symphony orchestra and many including choir as well.
Example: [UPDATE: Sorry, the video has been removed.]
I was pleased to be asked to record, edit, and mix Cross Symphonic, during the past year. First, the orchestra of 45 (all real) strings and woodwinds was recorded in Hollywood at East-West Studios. Following that, additional recording of a dozen trumpets, trombones, tuba, and horns were added, along with percussion and singers, giving a rich orchestral sound of as many as 100 musicians on each piece.
I asked John to tell me more about his process of writing and producing this music:
Q. What was your inspiration for this project?
A. Yasunori Mitsuda has always been a very inspirational composer to me. Ever since I was little I’ve been able to identify with his music. That combined with my passion for symphonic music was really the spark for this project. The game Chrono Cross is one of my all time favorites, and despite it’s soundtrack as being heralded as one of the finest of it’s genera I always found it to be criminally neglected amongst all of the symphonically arranged VG albums that are popular these days. The combination of my love for this game and composer along with the frustration that I never ran across a proper tribute are what pushed me to pen this love letter to the series.
Q. How long did it take you to write and orchestrate this music?
A. I started working these arrangements back in late 2017. At the time I was only working on this project on Sunday afternoons between other work. Things probably continued that way through half of 2018. It wasn’t until somewhere around mid summer 2018 that I really started devoting large chunks of time into writing. While it took over a year to finalize all of the arrangements I would say in actual working days it took somewhere between 3 and 6 months to finish the writing phase.
Q. Do you have any other comments about the production or postproduction process?
A. This was one of the most ambitious projects I’ve taken on by myself. When you’re in the thick of it it’s always nice to surround yourself with competent and talented people you can trust to help create the best product possible. While there’s plenty of stress to go around, I can say having Les behind the board in the studio gave me one less thing to worry about during the recording process. I was confident that we were capturing the best possible sounds of the orchestra at all times, and the results really speak for themselves.
Q. I know you also write gorgeous music for orchestra, choir, and solo singers. How can we find more information about your music and career?
A. The best place to learn more about me and my music is through my website , my publishing company, or my various social media channels.
John or I would be happy to tell you more about it — drop us an email.
The album Cross Symphonic can be obtained here:
Bandcamp (CD’s, Digital Downloads, Vinyl)
iTunes
Apple Music
Spotify
Google Play
YouTube
iHeartradio
Deezer: by Subscription
TIDAL: by Subscription
Amazon Music : Coming Soon
Pandora: Coming Soon