Hitoshi Sakimoto is celebrating his 40th career anniversary next year. To kick things off, Bassicape Records released 46 Sakimoto and Basiscape works up on streaming. We’ve compiled this handy aggregator to quickly find them, including three soundtracks that are being released for the first time. I start with this because one of the releases is the Unicorn Overlord Orchestral Album, which was released on CD last month in Japan. It includes a recording of a live performance, spanning two discs, and features amazing arrangements, including some by Scarlet Moon’s Osamu Kubota, as well as beautiful artwork of characters from the game and commentary in Japanese. It’s definitely a CD worth owning if you want a little more than what streaming can offer.
And the music? We wrote about the original soundtrack and acoustic album, so this is a wonderful new spin on familiar melodies. We can’t get enough of the main theme, which is weaved throughout and starts the album off with big horns and percussion in a grandiose and adventurous manner. There’s a lot of driving music with rolling snares and sweeping strings that highlight the game’s combat sections, all with brilliant melodies and orchestration, but it’s the variety of moods and sounds that struck me. From the sparse and melancholy swells of “Prologue -Dark Clouds- ~ -Beginning- Medley,” the regal fanfare of “Stage Clear,” and the incredible acoustic guitar and light strings of the reflective “Peaceful-Memory Medley” to the bustling and exotic “Drakenhold Stage -Drakenhold -Heir to the Dragonlands- Medley” and the twinkling waltz “Elheim Overworld (Day) – Elheim’s Theme Medley,” you really get a great taste of the world of Unicorn Overlord despite distilling four discs of OST material into two discs of orchestral performance. I love the ponderous “Galerius’ Theme – Baltro’s Theme Medley-,” the uplifting and sweet “Liveliness at the Dining Table,” the contemplative “Alain’s Theme” which drips with emotion, and the climactic and intense series of final battle themes that come towards the end of the album. The album closes with the healing choral elements of “Farde mal diavolo -Destroy Evil, then Come—, the reflective and stirring “Haades -Enthronement—” featuring a solo vocalist, and the uplifting and triumphant restatement of the main theme as heard in “Isle of Palevia.”
Basiscape has done a wonderful job continuing to give the Unicorn Overlord a spotlight. As mentioned, it’s now on streaming and can also be imported from Japan in CD format if desired.
