Parasite Eve Original Soundtrack

	Album Title:	Parasite Eve Original Soundtrack
	Record Label:	DigiCube (1st Edition); Square Enix (Reprint)
	Catalog No.:	SSCX-10020; SQEX-10222
	Release Date:	May 21, 1998; January 26, 2011
	Purchase:	Buy at CDJapan

Commentary

Yoko Shimomura – Composer

Hello everyone, it’s been a while. And to those of you who haven’t listened to my music before, it’s nice to meet you. This is the composer of Parasite Eve‘s music, Yoko Shimomura. In a number of ways, the game Parasite Eve was an experimental work. Not wanting to be outdone, I decided to try new things as well.

For one, the music isn’t one bit straightforward! (laughs) In other words, until now I had written my music to express directly; sad music was truly sad, light music was truly light, and this was what I was best at. I would let the music I wrote reflect my own mental state as I wrote it. This time, I felt, I wanted to step back and restrain myself. More abstract, which is to say emotionless, I suppose. Maybe this way I could bring out the game’s atmosphere more, I felt. As it turned out, Aya replies with “….” very often, and she never really laughs or becomes sad. So, I was able to bring out the atmosphere, just as I had intended, and I am satisfied with my work. So, on the side, I had been training myself for all of this in secret. It may not be noticeable, but I personally wonder if it wasn’t thanks to that that I was able to create a consistant atmosphere for the entire score.

Changing the subject, I was in Los Angeles working on the game, but my English is terrible. (Although I may have gotten a little bit better thanks to this, so I’m looking forward to my next trip overseas a little bit…) Normally, if you work overseas, you’d think that you’d return speaking English fluently! Or so I thought, anyway. I had thought that way, at least a little bit. Personally I love traveling overseas, and I had held some vague notions of wanting to live somewhere overseas, too, but I had never thought that it would happen like this.

At first there weren’t many Japanese staff members, and there were a number of misunderstandings… no, no, it was a great experience! Of course there were difficult times, but there were fun times and emotional times as well! If you live in another country, you’ll come to be surprised and excited about every supermaket and every bathroom. Every day you’ll have new discoveries and new impressions. But when it came time to really get down to work, I found myself thinking, “what? This isn’t any different from working in Japan.” I suppose no matter where I went it would be the same… I react to my environment, evaluate my experiences, strengthen my mind and body, and when I write, it comes out all at once in music, and I’ll feel like I’m really writing at a great pace… although I really didn’t think about it when everything was coming down to the wire (laughs).

And now this music that I have raised is leaving its nest. I am proud of my children, but how do all of you feel? Please let me know if they have been good.

Thanks to my mom and dad, my brother, my friends, and my loved ones.
Thanks to all of the staff who worked on Parasite Eve and its soundtrack.
I am grateful to all of you who have given me this big opportunity through video games.
I am extremely grateful for all of my exciting experiences,
for the ocean, the mountains, the earth, the wind, the sky, the sun, for music, and for all of you.

Translated by Ben Schweitzer. Edited by Ben Schweitzer and Chris Greening. Please do not republish without written permission.

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Ben Schweitzer. Last modified on March 8, 2014.

Tags: Horror, Parasite Eve, Square Enix, Yoko Shimomura