I have a cool treat for fans of flOw! Ever since completing the original score for the game (shockingly, already more than 2 years ago!!!) it was my dream to adapt the music for live performance by an orchestra. Obviously the in-game music was entirely electronic, with the exception of choral voices, but I had an idea floating around my brain (somewhat resembling the jelly fish, careening out of control after spinning too quickly) for how to handle an adaptation.
Well, the opportunity finally came thanks to Steven Allen Fox and the Golden State Pops Orchestra based here in Los Angeles. On May 16 they performed an all game music concert featuring scores to Afrika, God of War (the Guitar Hero rendition), Final Fantasy VII, World of Warcraft and others. I was proud to feature flOw in that lineup and later cut together a little video combining the concert footage with some in-game footage. I hope you enjoy it!!!
And if you want to just listen, the mp3 of the concert performance can be found here:
[audio:/files/2009/08/10-The-World-of-flOw.mp3]
Also here was Jayson Napolitano’s review of the concert from “Original Sound Version.”
-A
Nice. Might I ask what samples and VSTs you used? I’m an aspiring game composer as well.
Er, not “as well.” Obviously.
About the “aspiring” part.
cool, it would be nice if we could download it. please
@4 mendezgato: Right click “Save As…”
very cool
Awesome.
Very cool indeed!
A lot of video game music is really good and to have it played live by an orchestra is incredible!
Very nice, well done :D
sweet… I always wondered how flOw would sound if performed live…
Wish I could have heard it in-person!
the music is part of why i love flOw so much. is there a soundtrack available?
kiss a$$, very nice :)
Fantastic-o!
That’s Italian for rad.
Is the flOw soundtrack available for purchase on i-tunes?? If so under what??
This needs to travel the country and go to all Art Centers! I would gladly pay for a night of music like this at the Walton Arts Center in my city!
that was really good, i want to hear flOwer though a lot more. That game had the best music ever, I fall asleep to that music every night
Absolutely wonderful job on that song, wow! flOw is such a relaxing title, and I recently played for about 2 hours straight, and didn’t even realize it.
congratulations!
what a …ehhm…uhh…. undescribable song!
oh… this time i was thinking that trophies will arrive on this beautiful game…. is it only a dream?
please answer me sony :)
This is really amazing. I’m trying to find all the other performances as any time game music / mood is translated to orchestral performances its generally WIN!
The video resets if you move your mouse in and out of the video in Firefox! I have the most recent version.
I’d love a downloadable version of this song! It’s really good! I love calming music!
Pretty cool stuff. I haven’t played flow much lately. I got it over two years ago when it was first released.
do you think you could put the orchestrated score onto the PlayStation store ever? or even the original score?
Thank would be nice.
Any chance the flOw soundtrack could hit CD or iTunes.
This was awesome!! I especially like the choral part. Very moving. I’d like to see this or the original soundtrack on the PS store.
PSBlog, anytime you embed videos, it resets for Firefox users when you mouse over. dub tee eff
Niiice. At first when I saw the fl0w post I thought for a moment was going to be a trophy announcement, haha. One can still dream…
Excellent post. I love movie and video game scores and would like to see more Playstation Blog posts devoted to them.
I used to navigate to flOw on the XMB just to have it loop the song late at night or just leave the game “paused” to add visuals to the music. I’d fall asleep and wake up very pleasantly on the couch at 4am, and then stumble to bed. :)
I really love this song and it deserves to be made available on iTunes or somewhere else. I actually hooked up my computer to my TV and recorded it that way 2 years ago just so I could have it on my iPod. I would gladly pay for a better quality and more complete version. Please make it happen.
Epic, words cannot describe it.
Please austin “win”tory continue winning.
Mm… You know, a lot of the media and common population seem to think of synthesizers as a “leaping off point” rather than a respectable instrument in its own right. The above is fine, but I really do prefer the original. Sometimes the classic instruments just can’t convey the ‘message’ the way the newer ones do. You wouldn’t expect a piano to replace an electric guitar and, in this case, an entire symphony just can’t replace the electronic original. At least not while expecting the same results.
For a game like Final Fantasy VII, there were extreme limitations on the hardware at the time and so what they were ultimately trying to do was simulate an orchestra to the best of their abilities, thus making an orchestral adaptation not only possible, but inevitable (though in this case, too, there were varied results).
In short, Mr. Wintory, it’s perfect just the way it is, and you can and should be proud of that. =)
Hi Jeigh – I actually agree with you, believe it or not! flOw was always conceived of as electronic music and definitely not meant to be a \”mockup\” of live orchestral music, as one often hears. As such, this version isn\’t really meant to be a \”superior\” version, but rather a new interpretation. Mainly I just had lots of fun! :)