OverClocked ReMix Releases Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger

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If you're a regular reader of USgamer, it's likely you're also a fan of Chrono Trigger: that charming 1995 Squaresoft RPG that's yet to receive another sequel since its publisher apparently hates money.

While the soundtrack to Trigger's sequel, Chrono Cross, would make for one of the best video game OSTs of all time, what's found in the SNES original certainly stands as a great RPG soundtrack—and composer Yasunori Mitsuda's first in his storied career. And if you've found these tunes have gotten just a bit played out after 21 years, you'll be happy to know the kind folks at OverClocked ReMix have recently assembled a jazz-fueled overhaul of this famous soundtrack.

Titled Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger, this eight-track album (no, not that kind of eight-track) drops some of the game's most notable tunes into the toe-tapping world of easy listening. Dylan Wiest, Chronology's director and a member of The OC Jazz Collective, gives some insight into this album's creation: "Through some fluke, I was able to assemble my own 'dream team' of musicians and arrangers on OC ReMix who all shared a passion for jazz and video game music. I felt Chrono Trigger would be an ideal candidate for our first release given the game's quickly approaching 20th anniversary and the fact that Mitsuda's music lends itself so well to jazz and improvisation... Jazz is a social music best captured in the moment... and while the production process of this album was anything but 'in the moment,' I think the album's sound and cohesiveness will speak for itself."

Even if Yasunori Mitsuda may not be able to carry entire soundtracks like he used to decades ago, Chronology is a nice reminder of why his debut video game OST caught our attention in the first place. And, if anything, it serves as a nice companion piece to his 1995 Chrono Trigger acid jazz arrange album, The Brink of Time. It's definitely just as funky.