If you’re one of those people who have been playing Pokemon games since the original Red and Blue, there are a few auditory touchstones that have no doubt worked their way into your psyche. Beyond the Pokemon theme music, each town, area and gym came alive through technologically-rudimentary but masterfully memorable music.
Earlier this year, Trevor Alan Gomes and the Materia Collective went to Kickstarter with an idea. Breathe new life into those same melodies from Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow via the piano and a scant few other instruments. The fandom approved and the funds rolled in as you’d expect. After all was said and done, 440 backers raised $16,517. The result, a wonderfully warm album that triggers those same memory pathways with all the same vivid power as a home-cooked meal.
It’s hard to tease this work apart track by track, but everyone will have their own favourites. Maybe it’s “Bicycle Theme” that will remind you of zipping from place to place. Perhaps it will be “Battle! Gym Leader” that will remind you of sweaty palms and best-laid plans. Could it be the joy of “Evolution”, or the wonder of “Celadon City”?
The piano is an amazing instrument. It can take the most vivid of emotions and metamorphosize them into a memory. A callback to a host of sights, sounds and feelings. It would be a safe bet that you don’t remember every moment of playing Red, Blue or Yellow, but it’s an even safer bet that you remember how it felt to play. You were just a kid from Pallet Town. You were going to be the best, like no one ever was. You were going to catch them all.
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