CREID
Encyclopedia
Creid is the arranged
soundtrack
to Square
's console role-playing game Xenogears
. It was written by the game's composer Yasunori Mitsuda
and performed by a musical ensemble dubbed Millennial Fair. It was released on April 22, 1998 in Japan
by DigiCube
, and re-released by Square Enix
on June 29, 2005. Comprising ten tracks arranged from the Xenogears Original Soundtrack
, the album is mostly done in Irish
or Celtic music
style, with minor influences of Japanese rock according to Mitsuda. Artists from Japan and Ireland
were recruited for the project. Four of the five vocal tracks on the album were written by Junko Kudo and sung by Tetsuko Honma, while the title track "Creid" was written by Mitsuda and performed by Eimear Quinn
.
The album was well received by critics, who praised both the originality of the concept as well as the execution and track selection. The work on the album inspired Mitsuda to bring Tomohiko Kira, the albums's guitarist, back to have him perform in Chrono Cross
; this would eventually result in the latter game's ending song "Radical Dreamers ~ Jewel which Cannot be Stolen ~".
genre. Though he first described it as stemming from "a world of [his] own imagining" rather than any specific country, he has also claimed a strong Irish
or Celtic music
influence. His musical approach for the original soundtrack was to insert Celtic influences into "easy-to-listen-to" pop
tracks rather than making either "dense" Celtic music or simple background music
. For Creid, he expanded on this theme to create an album of arranged Xenogears music with a more prominent Celtic style. The album contains a mixture of vocal and instrumental tracks, and combines Japanese and Celtic music together in its pieces. The album's title refers to two ideas, with one being "a message to those who feel they have lost sight of their ambitions for the flood of information this era surrounds us with" and the other an affirmation to himself that Mitsuda had "rediscovered [his] own path". Mitsuda felt that with this album, he had "discovered the precise mode of musical expression [he] was seeking within" himself and "given form to the belief within [his] heart".
In addition to Japanese musicians, several Irish
artists contributed to Creid, including uilleann piper
Davy Spillane
—formerly of Moving Hearts
and Riverdance
—and Máire Breatnach
, who had previously played fiddle on another Square album, Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon. Mitsuda also asked guitarist Tomohiko Kira
and singer Yoko Ueno
to appear to the album after an acquaintance introduced him to them. Hidenobu "KALTA" Ootsuki worked on the album as an arranger and felt his work was made easier by his familiarity with Mitsuda's music—Creid was his second arrangement project with Mitsuda, after Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time, which he had worked on three years before. According to Ootsuki, Mitsuda and he were complementary in style, which resulted in an album leaving a lot of space and freedom for the listeners' imagination. He felt that, since Chrono Trigger, Mitsuda's musical style had changed to use less "strong" notes and include more sophistication; upon hearing the Xenogears tracks he "literally" "couldn't wait" to arrange them. Mitsuda has described their collaborative style as that he would first create the "basic backbone" of the song and form the idea of how he wanted the song "to turn out", then take the result to Ootsuki for them to arrange together. The end result would then be changed in the process of recording, as "what sounds good on a synth module doesn't always sound good on live instruments", and occasionally the recording artists would "ad-lib" parts that would make it into the final product. Mitsuda generally also chose the specific percussion instruments to be used while recording, rather than beforehand; he feels that "as long as the final product turns out to be like what I want it to be, the process doesn't really matter too much". As working with the other artists gave him a sense of celebration, Mitsuda named the "imaginary band" of performers Millennial Fair and credited them as such in the album.
Creid was released by DigiCube on April 22, 1998 and re-released by Square Enix on June 29, 2005. The release date was only seven weeks after that of the original soundtrack album
and ten after the publication of the game itself. Its ten tracks cover a duration of 49:01. "Stars of Tears" and "Small Two of Pieces ~Screeching Shards~" from the original soundtrack appear on the album as "Two Wings" and "Möbius", respectively, while the other eight tracks keep the same titles. "Stars of Tears", although included on the original album, did not appear in the game, as the scene it was to be played in, an opening cutscene
to the game, was eliminated during development. The album features five vocal tracks and five instrumental tracks. Creid was the last album that Mitsuda worked on as an employee of Square; three months after its release, in July 1998, he resigned to work as a freelance artist and formed Procyon Studio to produce his work, though he continued to do work for Square such as the soundtrack to Chrono Cross
the following year.
The main lyricist, Junko Kudo, wrote the lyrics to four of the five vocal tracks and had no previous experience with video game-related projects; she was surprised by the length of the game's script when she asked to look at it. She had never met Mitsuda before she was asked to write the lyrics. Mitsuda first heard her work in a song by Mimori Yusa
on Yusa's 1988 album Hitomi Suishō, and describes himself as being very moved by the lyrics and becaomming a big fan of Kudo's work. Although Mitsuda has said that he is generally not confident in his personal skills at writing lyrics, he wrote those of the titular track "Creid", which were then translated from Japanese
to Gaelic
for the recording. Celtic singer Joanne Hogg
of the band Iona
, who was the singer from the original soundtrack, did not reprise her role in Creid. Instead, Tetsuko Honma sang the four tracks written by Kudo, while Eimear Quinn
sang "Creid".
RPGamer
praised the album for its uniqueness and for "break[ing] away from the traditional 'arranged versions' of RPG soundtracks". They termed the songs "beautiful and moving" and especially praised the vocals as being an excellent mix of Japanese and Celtic influences. Elliot Guisinger of the site, however, in his review of the album cited the vocals as a weaker spot in what he called "the blueprint after which all future arrange albums should be modeled". Calling the album "a dream come true", he noted his disappointment that singer Joanne Hogg did not return from the original soundtrack. Eric Bowling of Soundtrack Central was also enthusiastic about the album, calling it "a turning point in arranged soundtracks" and "simply beyond words to describe". He noted "Lahan" as symbolizing the album as a whole, calling it a "coming together" of "diverse instruments and people" to create an energetic work of art.
Impressed with Tomohiko Kira's guitar playing, Mitsuda laid out plans after Creid to have him perform in Chrono Cross
, resulting in the latter game's ending song "Radical Dreamers ~ Jewel which Cannot be Stolen ~". During their stay in Ireland
, Mitsuda and the Creid album coordinator attended a live set of the folk band Lúnasa
in a pub. As Mitsuda liked the concert, the coordinator encouraged the Irish band to do a Japanese live tour. No other Xenogears album has been produced by Square Enix after Creid, but an officially licensed tribute album
titled Xenogears Light: An Arranged Album was published in limited quantities by the fan group OneUp Studios in 2005. The album features 20 tracks arranged from the Xenogears score and performed with acoustic instruments, such as piano, flute, guitar, and violin. An unofficial album of remixes titled Humans + Gears was produced as a digital album by OverClocked Remix
on October 19, 2009 consisting of 33 tracks on two "discs". While Creid is the only album released by the ensemble dubbed "Millennial Fair", Mitsuda said in 2002 that he would like to try bringing back the formation, in some way, for another project. In February 2011, Square Enix released Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album
, a second arranged album of music from the game, in an orchestral style.
.
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
to Square
Square Co.
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
's console role-playing game Xenogears
Xenogears
is a science-fiction console role-playing game developed and published by Square for Sony's PlayStation. It was released on February 11, 1998 in Japan and on October 20, 1998 in North America. The game was never released in PAL territories...
. It was written by the game's composer Yasunori Mitsuda
Yasunori Mitsuda
is a Japanese video game composer, sound programmer, and musician. He has composed music for or worked on over 35 games, and has contributed to over 15 other albums...
and performed by a musical ensemble dubbed Millennial Fair. It was released on April 22, 1998 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by DigiCube
DigiCube
DigiCube Co., Ltd. was a Japanese company established as a subsidiary of software developer Square on February 6, 1996 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The primary purpose of DigiCube was to market and distribute Square products, most notably video games and related merchandise, including toys,...
, and re-released by Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
on June 29, 2005. Comprising ten tracks arranged from the Xenogears Original Soundtrack
Xenogears Original Soundtrack
The Xenogears Original Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to Square's console role-playing game Xenogears. It was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and contains 44 tracks, including a Bulgarian choral song and two pieces performed by the Irish singer Joanne Hogg...
, the album is mostly done in Irish
Music of Ireland
Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
or Celtic music
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
style, with minor influences of Japanese rock according to Mitsuda. Artists from Japan and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
were recruited for the project. Four of the five vocal tracks on the album were written by Junko Kudo and sung by Tetsuko Honma, while the title track "Creid" was written by Mitsuda and performed by Eimear Quinn
Eimear Quinn
Eimear Quinn is an Irish singer. Dublin born Eimear joined her first choir at four years of age and at fifteen she started formal vocal training at the College of Music under the tutelage of Jody Beggan. Eimear later graduated with a degree in Music from National University of Ireland Maynooth...
.
The album was well received by critics, who praised both the originality of the concept as well as the execution and track selection. The work on the album inspired Mitsuda to bring Tomohiko Kira, the albums's guitarist, back to have him perform in Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...
; this would eventually result in the latter game's ending song "Radical Dreamers ~ Jewel which Cannot be Stolen ~".
Creation
Xenogears was Yasunori Mitsuda's first major solo work, as his previous soundtracks were collaborations with other composers with the exception of the score to Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki, which never saw an album release. According to Mitsuda, the music of Xenogears belongs to the traditional musicTraditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
genre. Though he first described it as stemming from "a world of [his] own imagining" rather than any specific country, he has also claimed a strong Irish
Music of Ireland
Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
or Celtic music
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
influence. His musical approach for the original soundtrack was to insert Celtic influences into "easy-to-listen-to" pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
tracks rather than making either "dense" Celtic music or simple background music
Background music
Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...
. For Creid, he expanded on this theme to create an album of arranged Xenogears music with a more prominent Celtic style. The album contains a mixture of vocal and instrumental tracks, and combines Japanese and Celtic music together in its pieces. The album's title refers to two ideas, with one being "a message to those who feel they have lost sight of their ambitions for the flood of information this era surrounds us with" and the other an affirmation to himself that Mitsuda had "rediscovered [his] own path". Mitsuda felt that with this album, he had "discovered the precise mode of musical expression [he] was seeking within" himself and "given form to the belief within [his] heart".
In addition to Japanese musicians, several Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
artists contributed to Creid, including uilleann piper
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
Davy Spillane
Davy Spillane
Davy Spillane is a songwriter and a player of uilleann pipes and low whistle.early yearsDavy was born in Dublin in 1959 . At the age of 12 he started playing the uilleann pipes. His father encouraged him and inspired him with his love of all music genres...
—formerly of Moving Hearts
Moving Hearts
Moving Hearts is an Irish folk-rock band formed in 1981. They followed in the footsteps of Horslips in combining Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.-Career:...
and Riverdance
Riverdance
Riverdance is a theatrical show consisting of traditional Irish stepdancing, notable for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept largely stationary. It originated as an interval performance during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, a moment that is still considered a significant...
—and Máire Breatnach
Máire Breatnach
Máire Breatnach is one of the most prominent fiddle players in Ireland. She also sings in Irish on some of her albums. Since the early 1990s, she has had five solo albums, participated in many other albums , with substantive contributions in some cases, and contributed to many music CDs, as well as...
, who had previously played fiddle on another Square album, Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon. Mitsuda also asked guitarist Tomohiko Kira
Tomohiko Kira
is a Japanese guitarist who leads the band ZABADAK. He composed the original music for the 1988 cult horror film Evil Dead Trap. He also used his talent on the soundtracks of the console role-playing games Xenogears and Chrono Cross , playing the opening and ending themes on the latter...
and singer Yoko Ueno
Yoko Ueno
is a Japanese recording artist. She has performed in the bands, Oranges & Lemons, Vita Nova, Marsh-Mallow, and Zabadak. She is also a notable musical composer, having written music for several anime series, most prominent being .hack//Legend of the Twilight, Azumanga Daioh , and Brigadoon...
to appear to the album after an acquaintance introduced him to them. Hidenobu "KALTA" Ootsuki worked on the album as an arranger and felt his work was made easier by his familiarity with Mitsuda's music—Creid was his second arrangement project with Mitsuda, after Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time, which he had worked on three years before. According to Ootsuki, Mitsuda and he were complementary in style, which resulted in an album leaving a lot of space and freedom for the listeners' imagination. He felt that, since Chrono Trigger, Mitsuda's musical style had changed to use less "strong" notes and include more sophistication; upon hearing the Xenogears tracks he "literally" "couldn't wait" to arrange them. Mitsuda has described their collaborative style as that he would first create the "basic backbone" of the song and form the idea of how he wanted the song "to turn out", then take the result to Ootsuki for them to arrange together. The end result would then be changed in the process of recording, as "what sounds good on a synth module doesn't always sound good on live instruments", and occasionally the recording artists would "ad-lib" parts that would make it into the final product. Mitsuda generally also chose the specific percussion instruments to be used while recording, rather than beforehand; he feels that "as long as the final product turns out to be like what I want it to be, the process doesn't really matter too much". As working with the other artists gave him a sense of celebration, Mitsuda named the "imaginary band" of performers Millennial Fair and credited them as such in the album.
Creid was released by DigiCube on April 22, 1998 and re-released by Square Enix on June 29, 2005. The release date was only seven weeks after that of the original soundtrack album
Xenogears Original Soundtrack
The Xenogears Original Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to Square's console role-playing game Xenogears. It was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and contains 44 tracks, including a Bulgarian choral song and two pieces performed by the Irish singer Joanne Hogg...
and ten after the publication of the game itself. Its ten tracks cover a duration of 49:01. "Stars of Tears" and "Small Two of Pieces ~Screeching Shards~" from the original soundtrack appear on the album as "Two Wings" and "Möbius", respectively, while the other eight tracks keep the same titles. "Stars of Tears", although included on the original album, did not appear in the game, as the scene it was to be played in, an opening cutscene
Cutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
to the game, was eliminated during development. The album features five vocal tracks and five instrumental tracks. Creid was the last album that Mitsuda worked on as an employee of Square; three months after its release, in July 1998, he resigned to work as a freelance artist and formed Procyon Studio to produce his work, though he continued to do work for Square such as the soundtrack to Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...
the following year.
The main lyricist, Junko Kudo, wrote the lyrics to four of the five vocal tracks and had no previous experience with video game-related projects; she was surprised by the length of the game's script when she asked to look at it. She had never met Mitsuda before she was asked to write the lyrics. Mitsuda first heard her work in a song by Mimori Yusa
Mimori Yusa
, , is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Although she has had a very prolific career, Yusa achieved only minor popularity in Japan until very recently when her song newest song, "Kuro", was featured on the popular NHK television program Minna no Uta from December 2005 until January 2006...
on Yusa's 1988 album Hitomi Suishō, and describes himself as being very moved by the lyrics and becaomming a big fan of Kudo's work. Although Mitsuda has said that he is generally not confident in his personal skills at writing lyrics, he wrote those of the titular track "Creid", which were then translated from Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
to Gaelic
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
for the recording. Celtic singer Joanne Hogg
Joanne Hogg
Joanne Hogg is an Irish singer and songwriter for the band Iona.-Biography:Hogg was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland and is best known as the lead singer and songwriter with the Christian progressive Celtic/pop/rock band Iona . Her father is a Presbyterian minister, her mother a nurse; her...
of the band Iona
Iona (band)
Iona is the name of a progressive Celtic rock band from the United Kingdom, which was formed in the late 1980s by lead vocalist Joanne Hogg and multi-instrumentalists David Fitzgerald and Dave Bainbridge....
, who was the singer from the original soundtrack, did not reprise her role in Creid. Instead, Tetsuko Honma sang the four tracks written by Kudo, while Eimear Quinn
Eimear Quinn
Eimear Quinn is an Irish singer. Dublin born Eimear joined her first choir at four years of age and at fifteen she started formal vocal training at the College of Music under the tutelage of Jody Beggan. Eimear later graduated with a degree in Music from National University of Ireland Maynooth...
sang "Creid".
Reception and legacy
Creid was well received by reviewers such as Patrick Gann of RPGFan, who claimed that every track on the album was "amazing" and held the work to be Yasunori Mitsuda's best. He especially applauded the "diverse multitude of instruments" and the fiddle playing of Máire Breatnach. Critics from Square Enix Music Online were also approving of the album, citing the album's "real emotion" and "extremely enchanting themes", with one reviewer naming it "one of the best arranged albums ever". Another reviewer felt that, though it was in his opinion one of Mitsuda's best works, some of the vocal performances such as "Two Wings" and "Spring Lullaby" held the album back.RPGamer
RPGamer
RPGamer is a media and news website dedicated to covering computer and video game RPGs. Its coverage includes North American game news, European game news, Asian game news, gaming industry news, game reviews, game previews, hands-on game impressions, gaming conventions, game merchandise, release...
praised the album for its uniqueness and for "break[ing] away from the traditional 'arranged versions' of RPG soundtracks". They termed the songs "beautiful and moving" and especially praised the vocals as being an excellent mix of Japanese and Celtic influences. Elliot Guisinger of the site, however, in his review of the album cited the vocals as a weaker spot in what he called "the blueprint after which all future arrange albums should be modeled". Calling the album "a dream come true", he noted his disappointment that singer Joanne Hogg did not return from the original soundtrack. Eric Bowling of Soundtrack Central was also enthusiastic about the album, calling it "a turning point in arranged soundtracks" and "simply beyond words to describe". He noted "Lahan" as symbolizing the album as a whole, calling it a "coming together" of "diverse instruments and people" to create an energetic work of art.
Impressed with Tomohiko Kira's guitar playing, Mitsuda laid out plans after Creid to have him perform in Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...
, resulting in the latter game's ending song "Radical Dreamers ~ Jewel which Cannot be Stolen ~". During their stay in Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, Mitsuda and the Creid album coordinator attended a live set of the folk band Lúnasa
Lúnasa (band)
-History:Named after Lughnasadh, an ancient Irish harvest festival, Lúnasa was started when Seán Smyth, Trevor Hutchinson, and Donogh Hennessy briefly toured through Scandinavia in 1996. Upon their return to Ireland, they teamed up with Michael McGoldrick and John McSherry to record a few tracks...
in a pub. As Mitsuda liked the concert, the coordinator encouraged the Irish band to do a Japanese live tour. No other Xenogears album has been produced by Square Enix after Creid, but an officially licensed tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
titled Xenogears Light: An Arranged Album was published in limited quantities by the fan group OneUp Studios in 2005. The album features 20 tracks arranged from the Xenogears score and performed with acoustic instruments, such as piano, flute, guitar, and violin. An unofficial album of remixes titled Humans + Gears was produced as a digital album by OverClocked Remix
OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
on October 19, 2009 consisting of 33 tracks on two "discs". While Creid is the only album released by the ensemble dubbed "Millennial Fair", Mitsuda said in 2002 that he would like to try bringing back the formation, in some way, for another project. In February 2011, Square Enix released Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album
Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album
Myth: The Xenogears Orchestral Album is an arranged soundtrack to Square Enix's role-playing video game Xenogears. It is the third soundtrack to the game, after Xenogears Original Soundtrack and Creid, another arranged album, both released in 1998...
, a second arranged album of music from the game, in an orchestral style.
Track listing
Personnel
All information is taken from the soundtrack's liner notesLiner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
.
- Yasunori MitsudaYasunori Mitsudais a Japanese video game composer, sound programmer, and musician. He has composed music for or worked on over 35 games, and has contributed to over 15 other albums...
– composer, producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, arranger, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, programmingComputer programmingComputer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a... - Millennial Fair
- Tetsuko "Techie" Honma – vocalSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
on "Two Wings", "Stairs of Light", "Spring Lullaby", and "Möbius" - Eimear QuinnEimear QuinnEimear Quinn is an Irish singer. Dublin born Eimear joined her first choir at four years of age and at fifteen she started formal vocal training at the College of Music under the tutelage of Jody Beggan. Eimear later graduated with a degree in Music from National University of Ireland Maynooth...
– vocal on "Creid" - Yoko UenoYoko Uenois a Japanese recording artist. She has performed in the bands, Oranges & Lemons, Vita Nova, Marsh-Mallow, and Zabadak. She is also a notable musical composer, having written music for several anime series, most prominent being .hack//Legend of the Twilight, Azumanga Daioh , and Brigadoon...
– chorusBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Kimiko Komatsu – chorus
- Hitoshi Watanabe – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- HATA (Hiroshi Hata) – electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, electric sitarElectric sitarAn electric sitar is a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar... - Tomohiko KiraTomohiko Kirais a Japanese guitarist who leads the band ZABADAK. He composed the original music for the 1988 cult horror film Evil Dead Trap. He also used his talent on the soundtracks of the console role-playing games Xenogears and Chrono Cross , playing the opening and ending themes on the latter...
– bouzoukiBouzoukiThe bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
, electric guitar - Davy SpillaneDavy SpillaneDavy Spillane is a songwriter and a player of uilleann pipes and low whistle.early yearsDavy was born in Dublin in 1959 . At the age of 12 he started playing the uilleann pipes. His father encouraged him and inspired him with his love of all music genres...
– uilleann pipes, low whistleLow whistleThe low whistle, or concert whistle, is a variation of the traditional tin whistle/pennywhistle, distinguished by its lower pitch and larger size. It is most closely associated with the performances of modern Irish musicians and groups such as Riverdance and Davy Spillane, and is increasingly... - Laurie Kaszas – tin whistleTin whistleThe tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
- Kinya Sogawa – shakuhachiShakuhachiThe is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
, shinobueShinobueThe shinobue is a Japanese transverse flute or fue that has a high-pitched sound. It is found in hayashi and nagauta ensembles, and plays important roles in noh and kabuki theatre music. It is heard in Shinto music such as kagura-den and in traditional Japanese folk songs... - Haruo Kondo – bag pipes
- Maria KalaniemiMaria KalaniemiMaria Kalaniemi is a Finnish accordionist. She was originally classically trained, but has become mostly as folk musician having played this music from childhood, besides her classical music studies, and also at the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy.Groups she is or has been involved...
– accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.... - Anne-Marie O'Farrell – Celtic harp
- Laoise Kelly – Celtic harp
- Máire BreatnachMáire BreatnachMáire Breatnach is one of the most prominent fiddle players in Ireland. She also sings in Irish on some of her albums. Since the early 1990s, she has had five solo albums, participated in many other albums , with substantive contributions in some cases, and contributed to many music CDs, as well as...
– fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music... - Tamao Fujii – percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- KALTA (Hidenobu Ootsuki) – co-arranger, drumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, programming
- Tetsuko "Techie" Honma – vocal
External links
- Creid at Yasunori Mitsuda's website
- Yasunori Mitsuda's official website
- Yasunori Mitsuda's official website