PinkuBentoBox

I complain a lot about Australia, but there are some great things about living here. One of them is that Australia is the home of Eminence. Eminence are a contemporary orchestra who draw the music they play from video games and anime (as opposed to Play or Video Games Live, which only draw from video games). They’ve been getting an increasing amount of exposure this year, primarily through their recent ‘Destiny’ tour. A quintet from Eminence travelled to Japan to stage a concert in Yokohama, which sold out in 12 hours. They then played a slightly different show at Otakon, which seems to have caused a bit of a splash, followed by a performance in Sydney and then finally in Melbourne. Last night I attended the Melbourne concert, and I was extremely impressed.

I’ve been wanting to go to an Eminence concert for a while, but they’re almost always played only in Sydney. Earlier this year they did a games-only ‘Night in Fantasia’ concert in Melbourne. The Night in Fantasia concert series involves the whole Eminence orchestra. I was all set to go to that show, but I forgot that it was happening and when I remembered the tickets were sold out. More recently I was reading Omo’s Otakon trip report about the performance they did there, and thought I’d see if they were playing in Melbourne again. Lo and behold, they were. I booked tickets right away this time.

First off, the venue. The concert was played at the BMW Edge theater in Federation Square. Fed Square is one of Melbourne’s more impressive modern landmarks. This was actually the first time I’d had a chance to visit the area (I live 45 minutes away from the city, out in the ‘burbs) so it was quite nice to get a chance to poke around. The theater itself is incredibly impressive, a multifaceted latticework of metal and glass. Photos don’t do it justice. The seats that I had were in the 6th row from the front, so we were able to get a 180 degree view of the river, the MCG, Arts Centre and so on. It creates an incredible atmosphere.

After tuning, the first piece played was ‘Kakki’ from Romeo x Juliet. I’m not very familiar with the music from that show, as I pretty much gave up on it a little way in, as it failed to engage me. I might still pick up the soundtrack though. Following that, however, was a piece which I am extremely familiar with. Noir’s Canta Per Me is an incredible piece, and sounds fantastic played live, even without the vocals. Following that, they performed a piece, Hako no Niwa, from Rakugaki Oukoku 2. Personally, I haven’t heard of the game, but it seems like it might be worth checking out at some stage.

After the MC came out to insult people and talk too much, they went on to play their next set of songs, starting with another Romeo x Juliet piece (”Oshyaberi”). I found this one a lot more appealing than the earlier RxJ piece. Following that, they performed what was easily one of the stand-out moments for me - the main theme from Odin Sphere. An incredible piece of music played in this fashion, it really saddens me that there hasn’t been a proper soundtrack made available for the game. Finally, half the group left the stage while concertmaster and first violin Yura played essentially a solo - Grandpa’s Violin from .hack//Liminality.

Following another long-winded talking spell from the MC, the ensemble went into a series of three pieces from Studio Ghibli films. The first was one of the main themes from Princess Mononoke. While it’s a great piece, I found I didn’t enjoy it as much as the two that followed. The second piece was the theme from Laputa, which is one of my personal favourites and was extremely enjoyable. Finally, they played Totoro’s theme from My Neighbour Totoro. I have to admit, I’ve only seen Totoro once, however this piece is instantly recognisable and incredibly good. Joe Hisaishi is an absolute legend.

The next set of songs started with a piece that Hitoshi Sakimoto had written for LIA, ‘Kanransha’, which to be honest I didn’t really enjoy that much. After that was a piece from Gundam Seed. A lot of people have been saying that it’s an arrangement of Anna ni Issho Datta no Ni, which is true, however ‘The Song’ is actually an arrangement that Toshihiko Sahashi put together for the Gundam Seed Symphonic Suite concert with the London Symphony Orchestra. It’s still an incredibly powerful piece with the smaller ensemble, but I think this would be better performed with a full orchestra. However, following that was probably the most outstanding piece in the performance for me. Tenmon’s ‘Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place’, from the Makoto Shinkai film of the same name is an absolutely stunning piece of music. Coming as it does from the climax of the film, it never fails to get me a little misty-eyed (Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place / The Place Promised in Our Early Days is one of my favourite films).

They could have finished the concert right there and I’d have been happy, but it was barely past halfway. The next set was the Main Theme from Romeo x Juliet. I really liked this one. Following that was Sailing the World from The Seventh Seal. I’ve never played the game, but I’ve heard this piece before as it’s a reasonably well-known Yasunori Mitsuda theme, and is up to his usual standard. The final piece in this set was The Hill Overlooking the Windmill, again from Rakugaki Oukoku 2. Again, I was unfamiliar with the piece, but it was quite good.

At this point, concertmaster and first violin Yura Hiroaki gave a short speech, explaining the group’s vision. They are all classically trained musicians, but if they put on a concert with classical music then very few people will come to see them. Their vision is to bring back the classical orchestra by playing pieces which are relevant to people of today, rather than only playing music written decades if not centuries before. It’s a great philosophy - play people what they want to hear, and they’ll happily come and listen.

The final group of three opened with a piano solo, Pain, from Xenosaga. It’s a great piece of music, but I lack the connection to it in the same way as some of the other stuff, as I never got a chance to play Xenogears - Japan hates the PAL territory and we never got the game. Following that the whole ensemble returned to the stage to perform Thanatos from Evangelion, which is an absolutely incredible piece and one with which I’m very well aquainted. The viola and second violin then left the stage, and the remaining musicians performed the final piece on the schedule - Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross. CC is another game we never got in Australia, however I’ve had the soundtrack for years. This was the first time I’d heard Radical Dreamers performed without vocals. I hadn’t realised what a beautiful piece of music it is.

For their encore, they played a medley of pieces from Super Mario Brothers. I actually didn’t recognise it at first - my terrible secret is that I never played SMB when I was a kid, because I lived in New Zealand, which was heavily dominated by Sega. Finally, they closed with Time’s Scar from Chrono Cross. This is one of my absolute favourite pieces of game music, and sounded excellent. A great way to cap off what was an excellent night’s entertainment.

From now on I can honestly say that whenever Eminence perform in Melbourne, I will be first in line to hear them. I think they’ve got another concert in the works later in the year, an Anime-only Night in Fantasia with the full orchestra, which I will definitely be attending. Also of note is that the orchestra have recently recorded music for an upcoming game, to be announced at TGS on September 20th. They gave strong hints that whatever the game is was going to turn up on PS3. Should be interesting, it’s great to see Eminence beginning to get the recognition they deserve.

EDIT: Some videos (Eminence are awesome, as long as you don’t use flash and you don’t make money off it, they’re totally fine with you taking photos or recording their performances). These were not recorded by me, I was a row or two further back:

- Odin Sphere Main Theme
- Totoro Theme
- Radical Dreamers
- Scars of Time
- Super Mario Brothers Medley

(Sadly, no one at any of their three concerts seems to have recorded Beyond the Clouds )