BARREL BRASSED Mvt. 2/5 - Donkey Kong Country 2 ""Forest Interlude" Brass Ensemble (Score Video)

“Forest Interlude” from Donkey Kong Country 2, composed by David Wise and arranged for brass ensemble by Thomas Kresge.

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Featuring...
The Game Brass:
🎵 John Robert Matz: Trumpet
[http://www.johnrobertmatz.com]
🎵 Avery Yonehiro: Trumpet
[‪@jazzthatbrass3484‬]
🎵 Robby Duguay: Trumpet
[http://www.robbyduguay.com]
🎵 JohnStacy: French Horn
‪@TheJohnStacy‬]
🎵 Alana Yee: French Horn
[‪@AlanaBeDootin‬ ]
🎵 Jordan Moore: French Horn
[‪@JordanMooreMusic‬ ]
🎵 Jackie Fazekas: French Horn
[http://jackiefazekas.com/]
🎵 Daniel Romberger (DannyMusic): Trombone
[‪@dannymusic‬]
🎵 Eric L.: Trombone
[‪@EricLTrombone‬
🎵 Allison Martin: Trombone
[‪@AllisonMartin‬]
🎵 Alex Hill (WarTubaFox): Tuba
[ / @wartubafox ]
🎵 Rahul Vanamali: Marimba, Mrindangam
[‪@RahulVanamali‬]
🎵 Yusuf Rashid: Timpani, Triangle
[‪@YusufRoshd‬]
🎵 Doug Perry: Bongos, Congas
[‪@YusufRoshd‬]
🎵 Thomas Kresge: Arrangement, Mix, Video, Pots and Pans
[https://www.kresgemusic.com/]

🎵 Emma Ember: Album Art
🎵 Henry Faber: Logo Design
[  / henryfaber  ]

Watch more game soundtrack covers performed on brass here:    • Game Music on Brass Instruments  

Notes from [NAME] about this arrangement:

Three years ago, the idea of a forest-themed album was proposed, another in our line of biome-themed albums (e.g., snow, ghosts, and islands). With this theme in mind, two Donkey Kong tracks were considered: Forest Frenzy and Forest Interlude. Eventually, the theme was expanded to include any vaguely nature-themed area or game (namely including forests, jungles, flowers, plants, and greenery in general), and immediately the obvious choice for a Donkey Kong track became Stickerbush Symphony, one of the greatest standards of the VGM repertoire.

Stickerbush Symphony became the fifth track I arranged for Brassroots, and there it sat for a couple months… just another track on a nature-themed album. But the idea of arranging Forest Frenzy (and Forest Interlude) never left me. The thought eventually arose to simply package a handful of tracks from Donkey Kong Country into a single EP, something of an offshoot of our main album. It didn’t take much thinking to decide on what else to fill this out with. Tree Top Rock is a somewhat more obscure track from DKC that I had arrangement ideas circling around in my head since at least 2020, and DK Island Swing, already an extremely iconic track in its own right, was nearly considered for Brassino Isles before being cut in favor of DK Island from Donkey Kong 64. It felt like the nature theming of all of these tracks could be easily justified, and we would have ourselves a tight five-track Donkey Kong Country nature suite.

As mentioned before, this entire suite began as a single Stickerbush Symphony arrangement on our larger nature-themed album, Brassroots. So think of this EP as a complimentary spin-off, using the same ensemble as the primary album, and arranged at the same time. The order of the tracks was set when I decided to create this suite, but Stickerbush was the first track arranged, followed by DK Island Swing, Forest Frenzy, Forest Interlude, and finally Tree Top Rock. I also considered arranging Treetop Tumble from Donkey Kong Country 3, but ultimately dropped that (but did include a little reference to it at the start of Tree Top Rock).

Given that I was adding four full-length tracks to an already full album, there was a conscious attempt to make sure these tracks didn’t individually run on for too long, especially since Stickerbush Symphony and DK Island Swing both nearly exceeded five minutes. I do wonder how this arrangement would have turned if it was handled as an individual track on a larger album. Anyway, this track features the Game Brass debut of kitchenware as musical instruments: some literal pots and pans make up the metallic drum beat you hear throughout much of this track.