Game info: Wikipedia
Listening/music info: soundtrack album
Credits
BGM: Akiyuki Tateyama, Kujira Yumemi, Kazuki Yanagawa, Shin-ichiro Nakamura
Theme songs: Kazuki Sakai, Shunsuke Tsuri, SHIKI, Shachi Tsumugi, Keiichi Oosawa, Kujira Yumemi
Info
Another Atelier game with music by Kazuki Yanagawa came out last year, and I… never actually got around to listening to it, oops. And then another one came out this year so now I’m two behind, sigh. Well let’s listen to this year’s first and maybe we’ll get back to the 2024 backlog at some point.
I’ve found the last several Atelier soundtracks I’ve listened to to be somewhat weaker outings for Yanagawa, in terms of exhibiting the traits that mainly draw me to his music: unexpected chord changes, rhythmic fuckery, and the like. I really enjoyed his work here in Yumia, though, it’s for sure the best soundtrack of his I’ve heard in a while. Lots of the Good Chords, a decent amount of odd time, syncopation, and other complex rhythmic writing, and a bunch of good electronic noises mixed with standard Atelier acoustic instrumentation.
While Yanagawa was the primary composer, slightly more of the soundtrack overall was done by two artists from music production company High Kick Entertainment: Akiyuki Tateyama and Kujira Yumemi. I’ve never heard anything by either before, but they’re mostly responsible for anime scores and songwriting, not game soundtracks (though Tateyama has apparently done a Kemono Friends mobile game). Their music was pretty good! Generally they both wrote in a light/pops orchestra style with strings, winds, piano, and sometimes guitar; Tateyama’s pieces I usually found a little more interesting from an ensemble partwriting perspective, but Yumemi’s weren’t bad. Some of their tracks incorporate synth textures, which I’m always here for, and they sometimes get into jazzier territory, both chill bossa-ish grooves and energetic band tracks.
This game also sees the triumphant return to this blog of Shin-ichiro Nakamura, a composer whom I listened to several times last year but only because he happens to work frequently with Takashi Yoshida. My impression of him from those tracks was pretty decent, though; for the Dynasty Warriors games he did a bunch of chill, jazz-flavored tracks with occasionally interesting chord changes and electronic sound textures that I found to generally be pretty nice. His contributions to this soundtrack are all very calm, lowkey tracks that aren’t particularly jazzy, especially in comparison to some of Tateyama’s tracks, but his harmonic style and electronic production both come through in a number of pieces so you can definitely tell it’s the same guy. Which is nice!
Atelier Yumia features five theme songs, most of which were also handled by producers from High Kick Entertainment. Two of those were composed and arranged by a songwriter I’m completely unfamiliar with, SHIKI, and I found both pretty pleasant so I just wanted to drop a little appreciation for him. They’re both fairly straightforward pop songs, but “Memory’s First Cry” has some nice synthy sound design mixed in and “remember” randomly slips three bars of 5/8 into the pre-chorus.
Recommended tracks:
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“Even If I Read Too Far into It” (Yanagawa) is a cute piece with some off-kilter harmonic moments at 0:23 and 0:54
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“Swaying Roadside Trees” (Tateyama) has a bunch of fun interplay in the ensemble writing
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“Deep Forest Basin” (Nakamura) slips into 13 at 0:53
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“Caverns of the Forgotten” (Yumemi) starts off with some pretty strings writing mixed with synths
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“Marching in Fog” (Yanagawa) evokes fog not through haziness but through random noises coming from all directions; love the striking bendy synth chords at 0:47 and 1:00
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“Spiritual Rainstorm” (Yanagawa) is pretty chaotic
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“Time to Take a Stand” (Yanagawa) is the kind of big rhythmic stacking orchestral piece I always post here because they always rule
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“Promised Land” (Tateyama) busts into light fantasy mode at 1:04
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