Final Fantasy Live At Abbey Road Studios (concert)

Yoko Shimomura, et al
Final Fantasy XV – Live at Abbey Road Studios

London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Choir
Yoko Shimomura, piano (on Apocalypsis Noctis)
conducted by
Terry Davies

Audio Only: https://mega.nz/#!hwIC2B5I!id4BxDLnFgaNIoE7H-K0WiB_XbQLoAQgH8WwaMiYvuU
Video (direct stream capture from Twitch): https://mega.nz/#!Eko1zCBK!NDcjrNBkcedG4fWbHACJzD6zFk14ZSLbkXu7S-79FCU

Here is Wednesday’s concert.

The YouTube and Twitch streams both had 128kbps AAC audio but the Twitch stream had better video; the video version is from the Twitch stream.

The audio-only version is a direct grab of Youtube’s 128kbps AAC feed which I have extracted, edited, and encoded to FLAC to prevent further quality loss.

Bearing in mind the shameful engineering of the night, higher quality really wouldn’t gain much, if it existed. Take this as a sneak peek of FFXV’s score, not as an album worthy of serious listening.

Hirano didn’t orchestrate this, but whoever did seems to be going after his vibe (particularly the Hirano + Hamauzu confluence) presumably in an effort to give a little musical continuity between this and XIII. The first minute of "Fight Fantastica", for example, has more in common with "Fang’s Theme" than anything else I’ve ever heard by Shimomura, although the orchestration is blander. Come to think of it, it basically IS the first minute of Fang’s Theme.

Nox Aeterna is yet another action cue that rips off Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (well, every single Shimomura action cue in history does, but this one is particular egregious) – you’d think composers would get bored of doing that by now, but no, there it is again…

Starlit Waltz is, as previously discussed, a less-interesting, shorter version of The Kitchen / The Orgy from Basil Poledouris’ Conan The Barbarian…

Omnis Lacrima we’ve already heard on Shimomura’s "Memoria!" album in a performance by domestic ensemble – it’s got a bit more going for it here…

Veiled Aggression starts with promise but turns into a crappy orchestral rock thing.

Apocalypsis Noctis is trying hard to be a definitive final battle cue, throwing in everything and every trick in the book but it’s mainly stabbing rhythms and pointless piano noodling… (If I were a cynic, I’d say the piano noodling was there largely to give Shimomura a reason to perform at the concert but not have to play anything too hard that might show up her obvious shortcomings as a pianist… If I were a cynic.) Also, some idiot in the control room forgot to turn on the choir’s microphones for the first minute of the piece, so despite the fact that we can see them singing quite emphatically, we hear nothing.

There is a little more pleasure in the quieter moments, but it’s mostly atmospheric; chords and colours, with barely any genuine melody to hold it together. Noctis is a happy exception; a lovely melody, perhaps the loveliest heard in any Final Fantasy game since Uematsu’s golden years – but it needs to be a bigger part of the score. It isn’t. Why not?

Like Shimomura’s other works… very obviously written by her, good in parts even if utterly derivative, but ultimately unfulfilling. Still well worth a listen, though.

Thank you.

Thanks for providing this

Thanks!!!

Kinda hope they release this as physical media with a good mix to it. It’s a good concert and loved the themes but they only issue I had was that the vocals were quite low and the orchestra overpowered them.

Thank you!!!!

Thank you!

Thanks so much. This gave me so much hope for the rest of the soundtrack and for the game itself. I cannot wait.

nice thank you!

Thanks!

Thank you