The Ongaku

Mother no Ongaku pressed on vinyl and CD by Nippon Colombia

Jerry on
Mother no Ongaku pressed on vinyl and CD by Nippon Colombia
MOTHER director Shigesato Itoi's company Hobonichi Co., Ltd. organized the "Secrets of MOTHER 2" exhibition last year, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the launch of Super Nintendo role-playing game EarthBound.

The commemorative event took place at Shibuya PARCO's Hobonichi store, displaying design documents and handwritten notes, promotional materials and commemorative merchandise. A separate live performance of music, titled "Mother no Ongaku," was streamed from a studio in Tokyo on June 22nd of last year, featuring arrangements of "Pollyanna," "Eight Melodies," and other selections from the game score.

A roundtable discussion also took place, with Itoi joined by composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. This week, record label Nippon Columbia announced the release of the "Mother no Ongaku" arrangement album from the streaming concert, performed by Suzuki and Tonzura Mother Band. Preorders have opened on vinyl and compact disc, shipping domestically from distributors CDJapan and Play-Asia.

The band features Suzuki and Wataru Sawabe on guitar, Tanaka on bass, Tomohiko Gondo on flugel horn, Yusuke Sato on keyboard, and vocals by Daniel Kwon and Miu Sakamoto. Suzuki's previously released "Mother Music Revisited" arrangement album is streaming on Spotify and Apple Music, also published by Nippon Columbia.

Role-playing games MOTHER (EarthBound Beginnings) and sequel EarthBound are both playable on the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.


From the Play-Asia product description:
The music of the RPG series “MOTHER” is well known for being beyond the scope of existing game music and has many fans all over the world, but the performance focused on the music from “MOTHER” (1989 software for Family Computer™, released by Nintendo Co., Ltd.) and “MOTHER2: Gig Strikes Back,” and was performed by a luxurious special band featuring Suzuki Keiichi as the main characters, Gondouto Mohiko, Sawabe Wataru, Sato Yusuke, Tanaka Hirokazu, Daniel Quan as guest vocalists, and Sakamoto Miu. Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, who composed music for the game series, joined and performed at the concert. Comes with a booklet featuring a talk session between Shigesato Itoi, who produced the game, and Keiichi Suzuki, and Hirokazu Tanaka.
CDJapan - "Mother no Ongaku" THE MUSIC OF MOTHER - Vinyl / CD

Play-Asia - "Mother no Ongaku" THE MUSIC OF MOTHER - Vinyl / CD

Apple Music - Mother Music Revisited