Two listens.

The first time around I got down what I could and I was feeling it wasn’t saying enough.
The second time around I tried to expand a bit, and I kind of got there. I don’t know. I think I was thinking a little too much about trying to convey something close to the song’s title rather than just writing.

Masashi Hamauzu’s (浜渦 正志) “Setting You Free” (“継ぎゆく意志”) is from Final Fantasy XIII‘s soundtrack, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A long draw shifting, and an echoing strike that is gentle. It seems resolute. Soon bells come in and ring out richly and dully, and the sound builds before finding a pause. These are long stretches in a compact form, and it seems as though tension is mounting, and perhaps it is. Perhaps this is a moment before something severe.

Sound returns with strings and horn, and they spread and lap over, drawing long and seemingly curved, rising and falling in a great heaviness, and bells return. There is the weight of decision here; the weight of choosing to take an action. Something is perhaps lighter, or maybe it isn’t and just seems that way. It is more full, however. Perhaps some hesitant gratitude, wanting to know intention, or at least understanding consequence.

Those sounds lap and layer, and run smooth, and soon the main focus drops away, and what is left is mostly percussive and further impressing the mood, and soon it comes to a stop, leaving a little bit to echo into nothingness as the song ends.