Baten Kaitos Soundtrack Liner Notes Translation

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[Translator note: The...idiosyncratic line breaks below match those in the
original liner notes.]


Sound Composition & Arrangement
Motoi Sakuraba

With this most recent soundtrack for Baten Kaitos, I feel that there seems 
to be a wider gulf between the pretty compositions and the intense 
compositions.
If I had to describe the overall feel of the soundtrack, I would say that I
think I focused on pieces that used orchestral instruments and also 
included compositions with a folk-music feel and lots of variations in 
order to illustrate the Baten Kaitos worldview.
At the start, I was shown some several graphics that had been prepared,
and they were just gorgeous, so I proceeded to create compositions that 
would live up to them.
I wasn't able to use all actual instruments for the orchestral pieces, 
but for some compositions, I used a solo violin, flute, and oboe.
I also included an electric guitar for some battle and boss-battle tracks. 
I believe that having these tracks played in their entirety using live 
instruments brings out another dimension to them.
And the thing that gave me the most trouble on this project was the sound
mixing  -  striking the right balance between the recorded sounds, etc.
I almost always do it alone, but for me, it's the toughest job.
There were even compositions where I redid the mixing over 10 times.
The equipment I have at my house and my mixing skills still have a way to 
go, 
but considering the current state of my skills, I think I did a pretty good
job.
If you can, play the discs on quality equipment really loud.  That'd make 
_me_ happy, too.


Company President, Tri-Crescendo Inc.
Director, Baten Kaitos
Hiroya Hatsushiba

It seems like only yesterday, but it's been over ten years
since I began working with Mr. Sakuraba.
We've worked on many different games since then, 
but in our previous collaborations, it has been my job to supervise 
everything regarding the sound; 
it wasn't as if giving him any direction on the tracks, basically.
On this work, Baten Kaitos, I was given the title of Director, 
so I was at a vantage point where I had a view of the entire game, but I 
couldn't believe 
that I was also entrusted with the very important task of giving Mr. 
Sakuraba specifications for all the tracks.
I don't want to cause any inconvenience to the people at Monolith Soft, 
but...
I appreciate them giving me the opportunity here to say a few words.

For this game, we used a slightly different method than usual to create the
score for the opening movie.
We'd been able to have the score match perfectly to the images in the 
openings for so many previous games,
but for Baten Kaitos, the images go by at such a dizzying pace;
it's rare for a video to move at a clip that seems more like a movie 
trailer, 
then be suddenly interrupted with periods of stillness, so to compose a 
score that would match those images
would seem to pose quite the challenge, wouldn't it?
I would recommend that those who haven't played the game to certainly try 
playing it once.
I believe that the combined effect of the visuals and the music makes a 
stronger impact
than just listening to the music alone.

I also think that the standard battle theme is an excellent piece of work 
as well.
I always think this whenever I have the chance to work with Mr. Sakuraba,
but every time, I always find the main battle theme to be just wonderful!
And I think that of all Mr. Sakuraba's battle themes, the one for Baten 
Kaitos is particularly excellent.
The music itself has such an exhilarating sound; I listen to it all the 
time and never get tired of it.
The rest of the score for this game also consists of a truly excellent set 
of tracks  -  so let's immerse ourselves in Mr. Sakuraba's music together.


Board Member, Monolith Soft Inc.
Director, Baten Kaitos
Yasuyuki Honne

"What's 'prog rock'?"  Such a question!
But it's one I actually asked to Mr. Hatsushiba (president of Tri-Crescendo
Inc.)  -
and for a person like that to comment on music seems so out of place, so 
I'll just talk a little bit about the game from an on-site perspective.
The art and story parts of Baten Kaitos were handled on Monolith Soft's 
side, 
and the system, programming, and everything to do with the sound was 
handled by the folks at Tri-Crescendo. 
This was the division of labor under which the game was created.
In this arrangement, Mr. Hatsushiba, who was another director on Baten 
Kaitos,
was asked to handle all the sound work throughout the project.
Specifically, we passed along to him all the story information, maps, 
character information, etc. that we on the Monolith side had prepared
and Mr. Hatsushiba provided direction to Mr. Sakuraba for the sound based 
on his own ideas.
In other words, the sound was left completely in the hands of Mr. 
Hatsushita and Mr. Sakuraba.
To be honest, we were quite nervous before the compositions were finished.
However! When we at Monolith heard the score, we all were floored.
"Wowww!  This really _does_ sound like an epic RPG, doesn't it!?"  Well, it
_was_ pretty epic.
Anyhow, the music exceeded our expectations, and it certainly sent morale 
at the office sky-high.
As for the content, I think you can fully understand the appeal of Mr. 
Sakuraba's most recent work just by listening to these CDs.
I'd also recommend going to one of Mr. Sakuraba's live performances, if you
have the opportunity.
Last time, he enthralled us with an overwhelming performance where he just 
zipped from this composition to that
using absolutely _no_ step recording. It gave me a nosebleed  -  really!


Monolith Soft, Inc.
Producer, Baten Kaitos 
Tadashi Nomura

1989: An all-night live show at Club Citta' in Kawasaki.
The big attraction, the reunited Atoll (a French prog rock band. 
Maybe you young Sakuraba fans should have a listen of their second or 
third albums?!), was clearly out of practice, 
and the lackluster vocals were really getting me down.
The Japanese bands who also appeared were obviously young and full of 
themselves, 
and the people watching couldn't really just settle down and enjoy the 
show.
Among them, the only complete performance that made a real impact as it 
unfolded was the one by Sakuraba's band, Deja Vu.
I was really looking forward to the band making a new studio record with 
the members they had at the time of the live performance, but...
And now it's already a whole fourteen years later, I see.
Ever since I ended up with a job in the game industry,
I've been blessed with many opportunities to work with musicians whose work
I've enjoyed as a regular listener.
At those times, when I'm listening to the demos or the completed versions 
with a smile on my face, it feels so good  -  like I should be saying "Wow.
Wow."
As you might expect, this job was another long string of "wow"s.
An old man like me is ruled by his nostalgia for retro culture, and so I 
tend to end up talking about Mr. Sakuraba's music in the prog rock field  -
which actually might be rude to Mr. Sakuraba.
As a musician, Mr. Sakuraba lives in the now, and I already feel that it's 
impossible to pigeonhole the compositions he creates
into a single narrow genre.
As a fan, I'd like sometime to listen not to program music, but to a new 
solo album from Motoi Sakuraba.
Do you all feel the same way?


Namco, Inc. CT Company CT Creator Group 
Producer, Baten Kaitos
Shinji Noguchi

I think it was perhaps right at the halfway point in the development work 
on Baten Kaitos
when we had at the company what is called an internal "milestone check."
In game production, we have to undergo several checks in the course of 
development.
All the company bigwigs are present, of course.
The people in charge show the game in progress and explain it; it's pretty 
tense.
The people attending sit with their arms folded, go "hmm" and "ohh," 
sometimes offer constructive criticism  -
and sometimes say, "I don't get it."
Well, most meetings are like that, I suppose.
It was at the point where they had been out of opinions for a while and 
were listening with an attitude of just "well, it's all right, I guess,"
when one of the big shots next to me said in almost a whisper:
"This music in this game is just _ridiculously_ good, isn't it?"
Please  -  pipe up when you say that, so that everyone can hear!


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Translation by R. Capowski, 5/31/14, RACapowski@sceneryrecalled.com. 
Baten Kaitos is property of Namco, Monolith Soft, Tri-Crescendo, and 
various company bigwigs, not me, etc.