In 2009 we put together this video for the TV stream we have here at the radio for the anniversary of Chrono Trigger. It is the full musical score that was done by Ocremix and their talented people set to video clips of the corresponding parts of the game. Before each video is the remixers name and their notes in making that track. Ocremix did a great job on this online CD and it is free for download from there site.

Chrono Symphonic is a project a long time in the making. Starting from the autumn days of October 2004, and ending in the wintry days of January 2006, it’s been a labor of love for everybody that has been a part of it. The CD encompasses 18 different artists’ takes on the way such a film should sound in an orchestral setting, and many more on how it should look and feel. The project aimed at re-imagining Chrono Trigger the way it was imagined in its creators’ heads…a tale of love, and triumph, and struggling for the good of others while leaving your own inhibitions and fears behind. It’s the tale you’ve waited forever to hear…and now, you’re able to hear it.

Yasunori Mitsuda

Mitsuda was born in Tokuyama, Japan|Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Kumage, Japan|Kumage. As a child, he took piano lessons, but he was more interested in sports and so never took music seriously. He also took to personal computer|computers at an early age, and he taught himself to computer programming|program simple songs and games. After a brief infatuation with golf, Mitsuda rediscovered music in high school, inspired by the scores of movies such as Blade Runner and by the works or composers such as Henry Mancini.

After high school, Mitsuda moved to Tokyo, Japan|Tokyo and enrolled in the Junior College of Music. Despite the school’s low prestige, Mitsuda received solid instruction from his professors, most of them practicing musicians who would take Mitsuda to gigs with them to help carry and set up equipment. Despite being used for free physical labor, Mitsuda got a first-hand view of the Japanese music world and valuable training both in and out of the classroom.

One of his instructors had worked in video games, and he showed Mitsuda an advertisement for an opening in the music department at the software developer Squaresoft. Mitsuda sent a demo which won him an interview at the game studio. Despite the “disastrous” interview (as he describes it), Mitsuda was offered a position on the company’s sound team in April, 1992.

Although his official job title was “composer”, Mitsuda found himself working more as a sound engineer, a person who takes compositions by other people and adapts them to the technology used in making video games. In 1995, he finally gave Squaresoft’s vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi, an ultimatum: let him compose, or he would quit. Sakaguchi assigned the young musician to the team working on Chrono Trigger. Mitsuda was allowed to compose the majority of the tracks for the game under the watchful eye of veteran composer Nobuo Uematsu.

The Chrono Trigger soundtrack proved extremely popular with fans. Mitsuda worked on four more titles for Squaresoft, the last being Xenogears in 1998 (he also composed the soundtrack to Xenosaga : The Will To Power, which is believed to be set in the Xenogears universe, although released by Monolith rather than Squaresoft.) He then went freelance, though he continued to work closely with Squaresoft on projects such as the Chrono Trigger sequel, Chrono Cross. He has also released non-video-game music, such as his CD Sailing to the World. A new arrangement of the music from Chrono Cross has been quoted by Mitsuda as planned for release in July 2005, as well as an artistic collaboration with Masato Kato, creator of the Chrono series, called ‘Kirite’ and featuring music, art, and stories.

His music from Chrono Trigger was performed live by a symphony orchestra in 1996 at the Orchestral Game Concert in Tokyo, Japan. The first symphonic performance of his music outside of Japan took place in 2005 at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany when music from Chrono Cross was presented. A suite of music from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross will be a part of the symphonic world-tour with video game music PLAY! A Video Game Symphony. Yasunori Mitsuda was in attendance for the world-premiere of PLAY! in Chicago on May 27, 2006, where his suite of Chrono music, comprising “Reminiscence,” “Chrono Trigger,” “Time’s Scar,” “Frog’s Theme,” and “To Far Away Times” was performed.

This amazing movie was done by Nattam who will never forget here at the radio.