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Darq game time6/24/2023 ![]() “There’s no doubt that subtly influenced my early creative process without me even realizing it at the time.” “It’s like a perfect marriage,” Hardwell explains. Some of the genre’s biggest names have made remixes of Zelda tunes, whether that’s Deadmau5’s “ You Need a Ladder” or Zedd’s The Legend of Zelda mix, while others, such as Steve Aoki, partner with gaming companies to make music for trailers and perform virtual concerts in Green Hill Zone. It helps, of course, that there’s also a huge link between EDM and video game music. Most of his fans play video games, he says, so they feel an instant connection with the song when he plays it live. Hardwell managed to get his hands on his favorite Zelda song after he was asked by Nintendo to remix a song of his choice for The Game Awards in 2015. This sense of nostalgia is incredibly powerful, and it’s the same emotion the Dutch DJ Hardwell mines to get people moving at electronic music festivals around the world. ![]() “Koji Kondo wrote the soundtrack to our childhood, so when Geoff Keighley suggested the idea of a collaboration, it was an immediate yes for all of us,” Reynolds said over email.įor many people, hearing someone play “The Song of Storms,” “Zelda’s Lullaby,” or “Dragon Roost Island” can transport them back to their childhood. So, it was a dream come true for him and the rest of the band when they were offered the opportunity to join Koji Kondo on stage at The Game Awards in 2014 and play a nostalgic tribute to the games. He believes it’s the interactive and repetitive nature of video game music that makes music in the medium so powerful, especially when, as Link, you’re actually playing it. “These themes can now be used to imply deep lore connections across games in a franchise, or simply to invoke feelings of nostalgia for players of previous games,” Buchholz says.ĭan Reynolds, lead singer of the pop-rock band Imagine Dragons, grew up playing the Legend of Zelda games. It spans a variety of musical themes in the game, and the series writ large, from “Zelda’s Lullaby” to “Gerudo Valley.” ![]() It’s what Buchholz describes as his “love letter” to Kondo - an orchestrated retelling of the music from Ocarina of Time, with 21 tracks performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. Like many musicians, Buchholz has played a part in building on Zelda’s musical legacy with his own arrangements, notably his Hero of Time album. “Of course, the score for Link’s Awakening was not composed by Koji Kondo, but it did draw inspiration from the musical foundation he laid in A Link to the Past - a legacy that has been drawn from and built upon ever since it was written.” ![]() “At that age, I was also developing an interest in music, so you can imagine my great delight to have found a game where the primary objective is to collect various musical instruments to perform a world-ending melody on top of a mountain,” Buchholz says. Buchholz’s introduction to the series came when he was digging through the carts at a local flea market and stumbled upon a copy of Link’s Awakening. It’s this connection between music and the Legend of Zelda games that resonated with a generation of young players, such as Buchholz, who went on to become musicians. Need to change the time of day in Ocarina of Time? Play “The Sun’s Song.” Need to stop an ominous moon from crashing into Clock Town and destroying Termina in Majora’s Mask? Play “The Song of Time.” Need to escape from a nightmare in Link’s Awakening? Collect eight musical instruments and play “Ballad of the Wind Fish.” While Kondo’s melodies mainly act as background music in Super Mario Bros., they serve an actual purpose in The Legend of Zelda, where music answers your biggest problems. “It’s difficult for me to imagine how different my life as a musician would be had it not been for Koji Kondo’s influence,” composer and orchestrator Eric Buchholz tells Polygon. If you grew up playing video games during the ’80s and ’90s, it’s possible you’ve spent more time listening to Koji Kondo than any other band or artist. theme or the legendary overture accompanying Link’s adventures through Hyrule. ![]() Join us on our journey through The Legend of Zelda series, from the original 1986 game to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and beyond.Īs Nintendo’s in-house composer since 1984, Kondo is responsible for almost all of the mainstay melodies you’d associate with Nintendo, whether that’s the iconic Super Mario Bros. In 2023, Polygon is embarking on a Zeldathon. ![]()
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