Album Review: Orchestral Works #1 | Hiroshi Tamawari
From the former videogame composer Hiroshi Tamawari, best known for Azure Dreams and Vandal Hearts II, an album of original orchestral music.
The composer Hiroshi Tamawari was a member of Konami's sound team, the "Konami Kukeiha Club" from about 1994 to 1999 before leaving the videogame music industry all together to pursue a different form of music as a freelancer. For more information about Tamawari, I refer you to the VGMOnline interview conducted back in 2015.
Here's a worklist of his time in the videogame industry:
| Game | Release | Composers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twinbee Taisen Puzzledama | Dec. 9 1994 | Hiroshi Tamawari, Mikio Saito, Kenichi Mitusda, and Kazuhiro Senoo | |
| Suikoden | Dec. 15 1995 | Miki Higashino, Tappy Iwase, Hirofumi Taniguchi, Mayuko Kageshita, and Hiroshi Tamawari | Track breakdown here. Information compiled by me from other posts. |
| Ganbare Goemon: Space Pirate Akogingi | Mar. 22 1996 | Hiroshi Tamawari, Akira Yamaoka, Michiru Yamane, Tappy Iwase, Motoaki Furakawa, Kosuke Soeda, and Shoichiro Hirata | Confirmed in the VGMO interview. Other composer credits come from Mobygames. |
| Snatcher (Sega Saturn version) | Mar. 29 1996 | Kazuki Muraoka, Motoaki Furakawa, Akira Yamaoka, Hiroshi Tamawari, "Kida Sun", and Shoichiro Hirata | Credits come from SegaRetro, and as such may not be accurate. |
| Vandal Hearts | Oct. 25 1996 | Hiroshi Tamawari, Miki Higashino, Kosuke Soeda, and Masahiro Yamauchi | Yamauchi's tracks were the vocal tracks sung by Jadranka. |
| Lightning Legend | Dec. 20 1996 | Hiroshi Tamawari, Ohamo Kotetsu, Akira Yamaoka, Yoshifumi Ushima, and Yasuo Asai | |
| Azure Dreams | Nov. 13 1997 | Hiroshi Tamawari | Tamawari's favorite of the scores he wrote. |
| Twinbee RPG | Apr. 2 1998 | Hiroshi Tamawari and Hidenori Maezawa | |
| Vandal Hearts II | Jul. 8 1998 | Hiroshi Tamawari |
Back in 2016 Tamawari released an album of original orchestral music, a YouTube preview of which can be found here:
Being a big fan of his Vandal Hearts music, I purchased it as soon as I could, and it is this album - Orchestral Works #1 - that I am today reviewing.
Naturally, one of the first things to emerge is Tamawari's fantastic feel for orchestration. There's no way any of this music was played by a genuine symphony orchestra. Sadly, Tamawari is not famous enough, and besides that probably did not have the money for it.
But even so, every piece sounds like it may well have been. It has that same quality Vandal Hearts II does: sure, maybe the sounds aren't real, but those sounds are being performed. Take Final Fantasy VIII as comparison: the sounds aren't real - and they don't sound like they're being performed either.
And just so we're clear, had the orchestral works on this album been played by a genuine orchestra, they probably would've sounded even better, even more like a performance (because it would've been a performance), but that it sounds so much like a performance to begin with speaks to Tamawari's talent at orchestration. It's really no wonder. Here's a few excerpts from the VGMO interview I mentioned earlier:
During my student days, I played the trombone and served as a director of the wind instrument and orchestra clubs of my school. In addition to classical music, I also listened to pretty much every FM radio program broadcasted, and bought and played scores for music of all sort of genres.
I gradually began gaining an interest in composition and arrangement during my teenage years. I began studying music theory books, such as Orchestration written by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube. By the time I got to high school, they were already putting out relatively cheap hardware sequencers for sale, so by using them in conjunction with electronic keyboards, I was able to start composing.
Of course, it's in the composition where quality lies. And while most of the tracks here are miniatures - and may well remind you of videogame music - it's also very good. All of the fantastic orchestration, motion, and counterpoint we heard in Vandal Hearts is still here.
Every track is a strong one, listenable to the ear, and the instrumentation is diverse: Compare the "Toccata for Electric Guitar, Electronic Instruments, and Orchestra" to the "Song Without Words". (The former, by the way, I highly recommend for anyone who wants to hear how such an unusual-seeming combination can be mixed.)
Aside from the "Toccata" one of my favorites is the "Perpetuum Mobile for Orchestra". The motion of it is something I always enjoy and despite being just three minutes long it packs a good deal of variety - it doesn't leave you feeling short-changed for your time.
Of the tracks based on other melodies - and there are seven, tracks 6-12 - I think my favorite must surely be "Capriccio based on 'Deck the Halls,'" as hearing the variety of mood Tamawari gets out of this melody is truly impressive, turning this light-hearted melody into something that even sounds rather dangerous at the rough half-way mark before moving back to a warmer feeling.
There really isn't a weak track here, though I will say that I generally skip "Joy to the World" when listening.
If you loved Vandal Hearts and Vandal Hearts 2, this album really can't be missed: it's roughly the same style with a decade plus of advancement and refinement. Beautiful melodies, great orchestration, and the canonic counterpoint characteristic of this composer, finally working without any genuine limitations to what he can do.
I can only hope for a second Orchestral Works volume at some point in the future, or for the rights to his Vandal Hearts series tracks to become his rather than Konami's, as an orchestral arranged album of them would be fantastic.
If, however, you did not like the VH games, than you may not really like this one. It would be reasonable to say that Tamawari's style has been refined, polished, and improved, but at the end of the day, it is the same style. (This is not a bad thing. Let us remember that many, many great composers had a style uniquely theirs: Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, to name just a couple.)
For those that did like Tamawari's music, this is easily 9.3 out of 10.
If you do not like Tamawari's music, than don't bother. (And, also, why are you here?
Sorry for disappearing for two weeks, everybody. I promise you that was not my plan. I had some computer troubles for a while and, well, I lost just about everything I had on my computer. So anything I've said before about plans for posts should probably be ignored, except for those that shouldn't. And which ones are those? I shan't be telling you that - sorry!
As always, comments are appreciated and welcomed.