Project Majestic Mix Retrospective
This post is also available in: German
Few details remain of the group now that their official site is down, but Project Majestic Mix might be considered the first and most well known of the made projects in tribute to Final Fantasy and video game music. Their CD’s where done with care to detail and all the proper formalities in place for public sale, as you can read in this interview with RPG and Stephen Kennedy the founder of KFSS. It is interesting to note when he recalls that “None of the musicians are famous (yet), but I hope that will change with time”. Only a few years later some of those members are now common names in the industry, like DJPretzel who founded Ocremix.org, Dale North or Ailsean. At the bottom of the article we have posted the farewell letter when the group disbanded in 2008. Click the “Town” play button below and you will know what these are truly master pieces from the fans hearts.
If you have not listened to any of these mixes they are unique and fresh takes on the Nobuo Uematsu classics. The Tribute work covers almost every one of the favorites in the series with still orchestrated feelings (except the dance works of course) and not overly remixing of the themes. The dance & trance remix projects take you into another world of Square music altogether and place you “squarely” on the dance floor. These are more traditional DJ club mix selections but the game soundtrack are still solidly in each of them.
These are collectors items now and not available for direct download sales anymore. Some of the prints where on very limited runs of only 1000 parts. The 2nd printing of SQUAREDANCE can be found in a few places still new, like Amazon.
A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Jun 22, 2002
The Silver Edition is a 3,000 unit limited edition 1-disc set in a single DVD case featuring a twelve page booklet and a uniquely marked "#### of 3000".
Disc 1
01 Prelude – Mustin
02 Final Fantasy Main Theme – JAXX and Ailsean
03 Town – (FFII) Dale North
04 Battle With Gilgamesh (FFV) Chris Tilton
05 Within the Giant (FFIV) Stephen Kennedy
06 Elia, Maiden of Water (FFIII) Johnathan Geer
07 Coast of the Sun (FFVII) Mustin, Storm, McLeod, Embree
08 Anxious Heart (FFVII) Valburg, Kennedy
09 Cayenne (FFVII) Stephen Kennedy
10 Seymour’s Theme (FFX) Mustin
11 Man With the Machine Gun (FFVIII) Jan Van Valburg
12 Sealed Door (Chrono Trigger) “McVaffe” Vaffeas
13 Sentinel (Gun Hazard) Dale North
14 You’re Not Alone! (FFIX) Dale North, Sean Stone
15 Prelude – Sean Stone
Disc 2
01 Vivi’s Theme (FFIX) Stephen Kennedy
02 Forever Rachel (FFVI) Chris Tilton
The Gold Edition was a 1,500 unit limited edition 2-disc set in a duel DVD case and was reserved only for the musicians and artists that aided in the project, plus the "sponsors" who donated to the project.
03 Caith-Sith’s Theme (FFVII) Randy Brown
04 Balamb GARDEN (FFVIII) Stephen Kennedy
Stephen: *chuckle* I’m sorry… but I can’t help but laugh at the thought of myself singing on the CD
05 Final Fantasy IV Main Theme – Stephen Kennedy
06 One-Winged Angel (FFVII) Randy Brown
07 Within the Giant (FFIV) Stephen Kennedy
08 Rydia (FFIV) Matt Stofferahn
09 Compression of Time (FFIII) Stephen Kennedy
10 Elia, Maiden of Water (FFIII) Johnathan Geer
11 Eternal Wind (FFVI) Chris Tilton
12 Ending Theme (FFVI) Chris Tilton
13 Forever Rachel (FFVI) Jan Van Valburg
Original Composer – Nobuo Uematsu
The first release was a limited edition of 1000 units and sold out in two days. It featured an expanded 20-page booklet with in-depth artist liner notes, and each album was uniquely marked "#### of 1000".
SQUAREDANCE Oct 10th, 2002
Disc 1
01 Hip-Hop Corridor (Itchy Trigger Finger Mix)
02 Soulless Village
03 Spacecat
04 Hello World
05 Cyan (Myktransformationmix)
06 World of Ruin (No Drum Loops Mix)
07 Magus (Raw Trance Exhaustion)
08 Cecil’s Jinn and Juice
09 From the Depths of Time
10 Star Stealing Girl
11 The Day Will Come
12 To Far Away Times
13 Forest Starlight
14 Ultimate Being
Disc 2
01 Chrono Corridor
02 Mana Beast
03 The Battle for Smithy
04 Forever Rachel (Club Mix)
05 Adventurous Break
06 Forest Animal Groove
07 Mechanicalcobrena
08 Mystic Mountain (Whirlwind Beat Mix)
09 Reiterated Inspiration
10 This Day
Arrangers
Mustin, Dale North, Matt Pollard, mellogear,
JAXX, Roger Matthews, djpretzel, FFMusic DJ, Zeratul,
Jan Van Valburg, Mazedude, Kaijin, Scott Peoples, Beatdrop, AE
Original Composers
Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, Jeremy Soule, Yoko Shimomura, Hiroki Kikuta, Kenji Ito, Ryuji Sasai
The Trance Album – November 5th, 2004
01 Under Cover of Night -HALO-
02 Industrial Fear -Donkey Kong Country-
03 Mistaken Love -Final Fantasy IX-
04 G-Storm (Extended Mix) -Extreme G Racing-
05 Holy Night -Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana)-
06 On Top of Jacob’s Ladder -Super Metroid-
07 Egg of Dreams -Xenogears- 6:31
08 Rena’s Theme -Star Ocean: The Second Story-
09 Dawn -Einhänder-
10 St. Gabriel’s Mask -Ecco: The Tides of Time-
11 Main Theme -Final Fantasy VII-
12 White Skies -Final Fantasy X-
Arrangers
Jan van Valburg: 1, 3
bLiNd (Jordan Aguirre): 2, 4-6, 12
Prophecy (Jason Miller): 6
FFMusicDJ (Haroon Piracha): 7-9, 11
SGX (Danny Adler): 10
Original Composers
Martin O’Donnell, Michael Salvatori: 1, David Wise: 2, Nobuo Uematsu: 3, 11-12, Simon Robertson, Stephen Root: 4, Hiroki Kikuta: 5, Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano: 6, Yasunori Mitsuda: 7, Motoi Sakuraba: 8, Kenichiro Fukui: 9, Spencer Nilsen: 10
Farewell Message February 2008
Greetings Everyone,
Stephen Kennedy
I wanted to take a moment to let you know what’s going on over here in our neck of the woods, and to thank you all so much for the support you’ve given us over the years.
Sadly, we have progressed to the point in our personal lives where we have little time and money to invest in keeping our music projects going and the website up and running.
We feel that it is unfair to our musicians and you, our beloved fans, to continue the site and our projects without solid planning, accurate deadlines, quick turnarounds on emails and orders, and frequent updates. At this time we can offer none of these things; currently, other areas demand our time and resources more. So, we must make the painful decision to put KFSS Studios and Majestic Mix on hold until life permits us to continue.
We do plan to come back someday when we are more prepared and can offer you the quality and excellence you deserve. It is our desire to continue using our talents to help others, and provide opportunities for others to do the same. If you received this letter in your email then it means you are on our mailing list, and that you will continue to be so (unless you choose to remove yourself). By remaining on (or signing up for) this list you can be assured that when we do begin anew, you will be contacted with our new website and business name, project plans/deadlines, and what we hope to accomplish throughout the years going forward.
We’ve been through a lot over the years. Through our projects and your support we have not only made positive impressions in the videogame music scene, but have also impacted countless lives in very beautiful and profound ways.
Project Majestic Mix will forever remind me that it does take only one person to make a difference in the world and in the lives of others. Be that positive or negative, I can only hope that we have somehow been a blessing to you and others in some way. I know that you have been a great blessing to us. Thank YOU for making it all possible.
Most Sincerely,
Stephen and Jana Kennedy
KFSS Studios/Majestic Mix
