We have some great news for video game music fans, especially those who have a fondness for orchestral arrangements of classic RPG soundtracks.
Square Enix has just released a new album, Chrono Trigger Orchestral Arrangement - Melodies Across Time, digitally worldwide, featuring new orchestral arrangements of 10 tracks from the SNES classic (thanks, RPGSite, for the heads up!).
The music featured on the album was primarily composed by Yasunori Mitsuda (with one track featuring contributions from Final Fantasy Nobuo Uematsu) and was arranged by the musicians Kosuke Yamashita and Hideaki Haginomori for the Chrono Trigger 30th Anniversary Orchestra Concert.
This is a special event that is set to take place later this month at the Tokyo International Forum Hall A (on January 17th and January 18th), which will see the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performing the arrangements live.
Here is the track listing:
1. Presentiment / Chrono Trigger (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
2. Secret of the Forest / Wind Scene (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
3. Courage and Pride / Frog's Theme (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Hideaki Haginomori)
4. Lab 16's Ruin / Robo's Theme (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Hideaki Haginomori)
5. The Day the World Revived / Lavos' Theme (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
6. Brink of Time / Delightful Spekkio / Fanfare 3 (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
7. Primitive Mountain / Ayla's Theme (Music: Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Hideaki Haginomori)
8. Determination / Wings That Cross Time (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
9. World Revolution / Last Battle (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Kosuke Yamashita)
10. To Far Away Times (Music: Yasunori Mitsuda/Arrangement: Hideaki Haginomori)
The album is scheduled to be released later this month on CD in Japan and is priced at 3,800 Yen (+ Tax) in Japan, with imported copies being available for pre-order for $32.99/£34.99 from the Square Enix store in North America and the UK.
If you can't wait for those, however, or are just looking for a cheaper option, it is already available to purchase for $12.99/£9.90 digitally from places like Amazon and iTunes. Here are the digital purchase links, with prices for your region. No streaming options are available.