Pokemon Colosseum "Relic Forest" Brass Quintet

“Relic Forest” from Pokémon Colosseum, composed by Tsukasa Tawada (多和田吏) and arranged for brass quintet by Daniel Romberger.

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Featuring...
The Game Brass:
🎵 John Robert Matz: Piccolo Trumpet
[http://www.johnrobertmatz.com]
🎵 Robby Duguay: Flugelhorn
[http://www.robbyduguay.com]
🎵 JohnStacy: French Horn
[   / @thejohnstacy  ]
🎵 Daniel Romberger (DannyMusic): Trombone, Arrangement, Video
[   / @dannymusic  ]
🎵 Alex Hill (WarTubaFox): Tuba
[   / @wartubafox  ]
🎵 Thomas Kresge: Mix
[https://www.kresgemusic.com/]

🎵 Henry Faber: Logo Design
[  / henryfaber  ]

Special thanks to Blessed_Cammi who made the VRChat world you predominantly see in the background.
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Watch more game soundtrack covers performed on brass here:    • Game Music on Brass Instruments  

Notes from Daniel about this arrangement:
I have so many fond memories of Pokémon Colosseum and its soundtrack, and I wanted to cover a Colosseum piece for a long time. We decided as a group to participate in the Soundole Chill Out Cover Competition this year (just for fun, not for awards/accolades), and we're going to be releasing a full-scale forest-themed album (Brassroots) later this year, so this felt like the perfect time to cover Tsukasa Tawada's gorgeous music.

Relic Forest, despite occupying only a single screen in the game, is one of the most important areas since it is where shadow pokemon come to get purified. As such, Tawada's OST for this place is quiet, calm, and serene, making strong use of harp and flute especially. Brass quintet has the potential to grow loud and overbearing, so I tried to avoid that as much as possible by using sustained notes and pauses to "breathe life" into the forest (also by using dynamic markings -- I don't think I've ever written "pp" as much in an arrangement for The Game Brass).

The "B section" of the piece that begins about 75 seconds in is an absolutely stunning melody that reminds me of Jupiter by Gustav Holst. I made use of the B section's motives all throughout this arrangement, including the introduction, but I especially wanted to highlight the climax of the piece. During the climax, the trumpets and tuba are playing at the extremes of their range while horn and trombone play wide triplet arpeggios within the gaps. These arpeggios were inspired by a video of Tawada himself playing his own music on solo piano, and I knew that this was the moment to unleash the full power of a brass ensemble.

As for the ending of this arrangement, my initial idea was to make use of the "purification fanfare" from Colosseum itself. However, as the arrangement was progressing, I decided instead to return to some of the ideas from the introduction and some of the motives from the OST in a gradual ensemble decrescendo of sorts. The sense of tranquility and wonder (with a hint of playfulness) is my overall impression of this theme in the OST, and it's what I'm hoping to evoke with the Game Brass arrangement as well. Hope you enjoy this, and if so, please check out more of Colosseum's music if you aren't already familiar with it; there are a lot of absolute gems!

Oh yeah, one last fun fact; this video is exactly 3 minutes, 14 seconds, and 15 frames in length. Enjoy the pi, math nerds! (π)