Ultima Return: A New Stones Rendition
In addition to rocking a snazzy new website and changing the name of their project from the more cumbersome Return to the Serpent Isle to the simpler and catchier Ultima Return, the good folks of Team Return are pleased to announce the release of a new — and excellent — rendition of Stones by Panu “Grotto Dragon” Aaltio.
Here, have a listen:
Hauntingly beautiful!
Download the file:
* [download id=”727″]
Sergorn Dragon adds:
Some of you will remember the wonderful rendition of Stones he did a decade ago that was used during the Quotes of Ultima V: Lazarus, but Panu is also a professional and very talented composer having already scored multiple films and videogames.
Panu has already been writing several tracks for us for the last couple of years, but we’ve been keeping them under wraps because… well we don’t want to spill all the beans before our releases, do we? His work has constantly been blowing us away because trully: this is the kind of music a fan-made videogame usually don’t get. But we’ve also been wanting to give you a snippet of Panu’s wonderful work and the musical style adopted for Ultima: Return.
It really is just a mind-blowingly good rendition of the tune, and I’d encourage you all to have a listen.
extremely impressive
😯
Wow! I’m just…just totally floored.
I’m rather at a loss for words so I’ll take Kenneth’s
“mind-blowingly good rendition of the tune”
Excuse me while I go chase after my mind.
Glad you like it 😀
Oh my…
That was truly, truly a privilege to listen to.
Downloading and adding this lovely gem to my collection of Stones renditions. 🙂
Hate to be a dissenter, but this seems a little overwrought. “Stones” always seemed like a poetic folky clavichord piece – something you’d hear at a Renaissance Faire. This sounds like the soundtrack to “Dungeon Siege” or something.
You have a good point in that Stones is usually a more upbeat song and this is a somewhat unusual rendition – I do feel this is a track that can be used as a leitmotiv for different kind of tonal approach though: the Ultima IX rendition for instance gave a very sad and melancholic feeling, and UO Stygian Abyss gave a pretty awesome “epic battle” variation of it.
That was the single most beautiful rendition of Stones I have ever heard.
Yep, this is very Inon Zur-esque. Not that that’s a bad thing.
Purely stunning… I keep leaning over and clicking the “play” button while im wrapping up this paper 🙂
As opposed to downloading the MP3 and queueing it up on infinite repeat?
I read all the comments here and on the project site and was pretty stoked. As a composer I can talk a little shit (though not too much, as I’m not exactly Hans Zimmer). I was disappointed. The rendition was a little sloppy at times (logically, not syntactically), though superior to many I’ve heard despite its stylistic departure from what most Ultima fans think of canonical Stones arrangements. At least the trill wasn’t butchered, though the opportunity to make it sing was squandered.
Sir Kenneth would no doubt be amused and probably a bit proud, so don’t take this as a mean-hearted knocking. This track, despite the aforementioned deficits, would be very well suited to a specific “cut scene” or story snippet; it needs visual accompaniment to be truly effective. As a standalone song it is somewhat displeasing.
From a less caustic and more practical perspective, congrats to the Return team and the composer for an above average score piece that should work nicely into what I hope will be an excellent continuation of the Ultima saga.
Ah, it’s the overture to Ultima: the Musical! Lazarus was very nice music, but it seems like you’ve advanced since then. Maybe I should try one of your films, what do you recommend?
I’m all for different variations on great themes, so go on and experiment – when it’s appropriate. I was surprised to find an Electro version of stones on the U9:Ascension soundtrack, I wonder if that was actually in the game or more of a bonus track…
And I agree with Sactimonia that it’s not a song to have the player do whatever he wants to – at least the second have speaks of a revelation or scripted imagery – Possible climax of the game even, not that I know your game.
Haunting Vocals give me goosebumps. Thank you.
The Electro Version of Stones was used during the closing credits of Ultima IX. It was horrid – which is why I make an alternate version of the ending movie with the regular Stones instead 😛
Beautiful – thanks for sharing this!
Very nice. It kinda reminds me of some of the U9 music (kinda classical, yet epic). I agree with some of the others who said it would be good in a cutscene or some such. Though it would also be nice when just exploring a bit… though the insanely epic section would seem strange if I just walked into a butcher shop…
If you really want to make fans happy, then can you do what I would do if I ever made an Ultima game involving a nice big team: Make Iolo play stones on his lute and sing. Have the companions gather around the campfire and have some nice relaxing friend time. That’s something I’ve always wanted to see/hear in an Ultima game (U6 being my first Ultima game, with the campfire scenes, is probably responsible for that). That would make my decade.
I really like it. While I don’t know the plot of Return, I feel ithis fits very well with the “feel” I get from Serpent Isle – a place that is cold, harsh and filled with tragedy and the ruins of dead civilizations.
Well we’ll most likely won’t use this Stones for a cutscenes, since at this time we have no cutscenes in the Prologue (through I have a good idea as to where wemight use Stones). Our plan for cutscenes always was to use stills, but with our 2D artist going AWOL and no replacement in sight, I’m not too sure how we’ll handle this stuff now. We never had plans for “in game cutscenes” though, we aim a more oldschool approach with fully textual dialogues and scripted events instead.
@Thepal – It won’t be in the Prologue, but while we don’t have Iolo singing Stones (because well, we don’t have Iolo) we actually do plan to have “bonding dialogues” between companions while camping at safe locations.
Well… that’s something at least.
*decides to go annoy the Redemption team with his request later*
I don’t normally post in forums or replies, if ever.
But I have to say, this music made my mouth drop
Bravo Panu, and grats to the team for having such great talent aboard
Sounds great! BTW i think that Morrowind theme was stolen from Ultima Stones theme. Sounds familiar. Just check and compare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJD-Ufi1jGk
@ SEVERIAN: That was just the Morrowind music, where was the side-by-side? Stones is two or so four-chord progressions, each subtle variations of the previous or ventures into a new progression. Two progressions, two variations each. Orderly and nuanced, much like Baroque music.
I think it is the series of three notes he is talking about. I wouldn’t really say it is that similar (especially since they are completely different <_< ). Both have groups of three notes. In the numbers of earlier Ultimas: 678 987 876 7653 567 678 789.
Hmm… now I think about it… the 567 678 789 part is the same I think in both…