The last song gave me chills... nuff said

Very impressive body of work, I had a great time listening to your tracks and reading through the story imagined for each !

The instrumentation was really pleasant to listen to and, with the arrangements and great melodies that you came up with, it has that whimsical energy found on Ghibli music for example that immerses you in this fantastic world and makes you want to go on an adventure.
All tracks were very solid and consistent while being varied in setpieces so you did a great job tying them together (eventhough you seemed to have worked on them separately in a incremental manner, which is impressive too along with the great illustrations to visualize better your story).

Overall very memorable work, it was a pleasure to listen to so great job for that !

I did end up closing my eyes and imagining a story to go along with this, it was such an immersive experience I could feel the water on my face (it seemed to be coming from my eyes for some reason). The compositional work here is SO good at conveying an emotional journey, all the little details with the different instruments moving in and out, the tempo changes, the huge but seamless shifts in tone, it feels like I just played the entire game. The only thing I can really say that felt out of place a bit was the horn sections feeling a little too consistent? It's an incredibly minor thing and might just be me not understanding how horns work but just a smidge of volume automation to bring some of the horns in and out/flow into each other a bit more. Again INCREDIBLY minor detail and the only reason I noticed it was because of how good everything is haha, awesome submission :)

Really great soundtrack! Love the little tempo changes, the instrumentation is really good! Each track has well defined sections and concludes nicely. Its all very polished and complete. 

It might be worth considering "breathing" with wind instruments, especially flutes/piccolo. Some lines sound more suited to a keyboard than a wind instrument. In a real orchestra they can stagger breathing if they have to but it's more idiomatic writing if you consider it beforehand. Also forces you to have good phrasing.

I think it's a good sign that's my only nitpick haha, well done!

Seaside Overture: This is very pretty, love the pitched percussion use that lends a magical feel. Nice intro.

Heart Of The Mountain Town: This is such an effective town theme. Love how it gradually swells. Strong composition.

Lumina (At the End of the Coast): Really nailed the storytelling on this one. I like how you switch between calm and louder sections.

Atlantis: Ooh the mood shift. This one reminds me of Secret of Mana. Very nice!

Empress of the Sea: Love the brass. And then the harp in the second section.

Onward: Very grand. And then the soft piano at the end with the bird sfx! I really loved that switch. 

Lunar Eclipse (Rise of the Exiled Emperor): This rhythm is absolutely bangin. I love the war chant type samples. That staccato (I think) string sound is a bit harsh but nothing crazy, just a limit of the library. I still really enjoyed the track.

Love you, Farewell: this is a very pretty outro and I love labs piano so much. 

Great work!

the first track has captivated me immediately, so this will be getting my stream of consciousness treatment...

what a gorgeous first track and introduction! such a strong start, and beautiful progression throughout. really lovely!

second track: CONGRATULATIONS, this is the first track of the entire jam to give me goosebumps, such inspiring writing, with lovely interplay between your melody and countermelody, and the textural shift into the sweeping strings and driving arpeggios is absolutely unbelievable. the rubato effect is also so well done - it really contributes to the human feeling of this track and project so far. absolutely stunning.

lumina! gorgeous brass writing. i am a fiend for soft brass chords, and the opening of this track is no exception! a lovely emotional tone shift that contrasts really well with the previous track. very nice!!

speaking of tone shifts... what an intro to atlantis! the powerful low brass is such a bold choice, that i think works really well in effectively setting the emotional tone quickly. the progression in this track is so dramatic - this track works really well as a midpoint for the project.

empress of the sea is a fantastic companion piece to atlantis. while maintaining that dark feeling, it has the feeling i imagine one must feel staring at the peak of a mountain from its base... filled with anxiety, but with a drive to complete the climb. 

the metaphorical mountain climb comes to fruition in onward! what an uplifting, inspirational track. absolutely stunning writing - plus, i love the gentle piano at the end of this track. it contrasts so beatifully with the earlier potion of the song, and the ambience at the end is also beautifully done.

you've really perfected that sort of boss-fight, final challenge, last battle feeling in lunar eclipse! another piece of stellar writing, with yet another beautiful conclusion

love you, farewell... what a conclusion to this project. so delicately done, beautifully emotional and gentle. absolutely stunning, and again, just the perfect conclusion to your submission.

such an impressive combination of quality and quantity for such a short amount of time to write - its such a challenge to compose a full orchestral work, let alone within a span of a week. however, you've done incredibly well. not only does it fit your theme and story perfectly, but it also stands on its own as a composition brilliantly. absolutely perfect, congratulations on your submission!

delicate and sincere. i really like the development of the melodic themes going through this. the piano in love you, farewell is harmonically super up my alley and i liked it a lot. lots of comments on technical production stuff here, and i don't think it's as problematic as portrayed in this comment section. that stuff comes with experimentation, practice, and working with other people (very important); the most important part is to just keep writing because you like writing music. thanks for sharing :)

Quite an impressive number of tracks here !

My heart goes to "Onward"  and "Love You, Farewell", they really make your main leitmotiv stand out, especially in calmer parts.

amazing submission!! i really love how this was composed and the grandiose instrumentation, i also very much adore the story and almost made me tear up at the end lmao

Great soundtrack with a lot of heart, and an impressive amount of work with eight tracks! Some very heartfelt moments, my favourite was the crescendo around the middle of Heart of the Mountain Town. Well done!

Really good work, each track is really well composed and there is a clear story progression. I also like the use of sound effects through some of the songs, like the ocean sounds throughout and the chanting in Onward and Lunar Eclipse. My favourite track is Heart Of The Mountain Town, I really like the interplay between the different instruments in the quieter bits!

Very beautiful soundtrack!! I feel like there's something missing from a couple of songs that could really make them pop in a strong way, but respectfully I do not have the language or skills to tell you what that might be haha. Nonetheless, still incredibly enjoyable!

I like the orchestration and the themes and composition work you're doing, the leitmotif you occasionally echo in is a really good touch! The critique I'll offer is the the mix levels and reverb for your instruments, and the instrument choices, can be a little strange at times. Some of them really fill up the mix and it makes it difficult to ascertain other instruments while one is playing, but again that'll come with more time and more stuff made. I can't deny the story blurb and the accompanying music is very well arranged. Good work my dude!

Great work! I can really feel the heart you put into this work. It comes across as complete and very well connected, and I believe it would fit beautifully in the game context you described. Overall, it has a strong and thoughtful arrangement that was a pleasure to listen to.

Fantastic work on this one, the arrangement, orchestration, the storytelling was extremely well crafted. Well done !

One of the most stunning work, if we’re talking about storytelling. Love it!

Firstly, I appreciated how fleshed out your game and soundtrack explanations were. It helped a lot to understand the meaning behind everything. 

This submission is lovely! You did a great job with how you handle the rising and falling of energy and tension in each track. And each track has its own identity while still keeping the whole submission cohesive, which made it much more interesting to listen to.

The one thing I would consider is reverb levels. At times, there tends to be a lot of instruments fighting for the "closer" spots (i.e. little to no reverb). I think giving more instruments a little more space would go a long way. Great work!

I wanted to leave a feedback but unfortunately I drowned in Onward. ❤️

Seriously, that's one magical track. Your whole soundtrack is great. I love how it flows, love the orchestral take on the topic, and absolutely love hearing you juggle the leitmotifs.

It is a bit disproportionate to hear your massive talent for writing great tracks and your slight disregard for mixing them, though. I think it would help your tracks shine even brighter if you put a bit more into mixing. I'm saying that because it feels like somewhat of a low hanging fruit that could push your talent to the next level. 

Seriously. I've never loved the technical part of the music production, but at some point it's just the next stream that joins the river of creativity and helps it flow better. While I don't think I've done a particularly great job myself on the mix this Jam and I just straight up skipped mastering because of the tight time constraint I had, I've gone through this journey and I know it's worth it.

Wonderful soundtrack. You did a great job and should be proud of your submission. Which, from the artist message you wrote for the project, you are. Rightfully.

Get into audio mixing a little. You'll just get out of your own way.

Thank you for the past 15 minutes of my life. I am glad I spent them on your soundtrack. ❤️

I am struggling to find words that weren't already provided for this set but man I am beyond astounded at the volume, quality, and cohesion of all these pieces. I really hope that you continue to write music here, but I wish most of all that your work ends up in a lot of games.

This is just flat out very moving work. I cant imagine how much better it is without a 9 day time constraint.

Absolutely incredible work friend

An absolutely delightful experience. A lot of orchestral music sometimes blend together for me, but the tracks of this album are distinct and each inspire so many different feelings. It does so well at alternating between feelings of grandeur, whimsy, impact, sadness, longing... Really made me understand the importance of wind instruments, you can sometimes take them for granted.

The usage of leitmotifs here is very clear and well done, I managed to catch them on my first listening for once haha. I like how versatille it is, a clear example would the Empress' theme, which uses it in a very dark, foreboding way compared to the other tracks.

If I had to pick a favourite, I'd say it's Heart of the Mountain Town, it's just so fun to listen to. The pizzicato strings along with the short string snippets throughout the song make it really memorable, and the part at around 1:30 was just astounding. 

I also liked Lumina, the way it starts with the booming brass before quieting down with the celesta/music box really helped in picturing a cutscene of a beautiful figure emerging out of the water before it's revealed that it's a silly lil' dolphin haha. The track then picks up again in volume to show the importance of this being and you aquiring your powers, I dig it.

I also thought Love You, Farewell would be absolutely perfect for both reuniting with a loved one and ending your long journey. It honestly felt like something you'd hear in a movie

Awesome stuff, I'm glad I listened to this.