Nobuo Uematsu's new music is a live concert exclusive - and comes with a chance to hear rare game scores live
Legendary video games composer Nobuo Uematsu has a suite of new orchestral compositions for the first time in quite a while - and he's breaking new ground, doing something he's never done before.
Uematsu is of course best known for his work on video game scores, and most of all for his role in setting the tone and status for the legendary music of the Final Fantasy series, where he alone composed the first nine titles in the series - and continues to contribute, on-and-off, to various FF titles to this day. But now, he's doing something entirely new: composing music directly for live performance in the concert hall.
The music will be performed under the title of Merregnon: Heart of Ice, and while it's a full orchestra concert performance, Uematsu's music is set to a story, with the performance designed to be an "orchestral event" rather than a mere concert.
That's why the performance has the flowery title: each song is accompanied by illustrations from Emmy award-winning producer and Director Julien Chheng, with Uematsu's music taking you through a story that is designed to be an experience.. It totals around 40 minutes of all-new music from Uematsu - the most he's composed for a single project in some time.
The Heart of Ice story will make up the second half of the concert - while the first half will be an aural delight for fans of Uematsu's video game work. In that first half, fans in attendance will hear all-new arrangements of Uematsu's music from RPG of the Year 2021 Fantasian and Lost Odyssey, as well as performances of music from Blue Dragon and the first six Final Fantasy titles.
Merregnon: Heart of Ice is coming from Thomas Bocker's Merregnon Studios, the same man and company behind a multitude of video game concepts including the beloved Final Symphony series of Final Fantasy concerts. This concert is in many ways a sequel to Merregnon: Land of Silence, which featured original music by Yoko Shimomura, another RPG music legend.
Merregnon: Heart of Ice is set to see its worldwide premiere on February 29th - the same day many of Uematsu's classic scores will be revived in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The premiere showing is taking place in Germany in the BASF's after-work house in Ludwigshafen am Rhein - and tickets start as low as 25 Euros. Given Merregnon's history, it's likely the concert will make its way to other countries and venues in time, too.