One listen.

I think a big reason as to why I’m writing about a few of the songs from this soundtrack is due to the game being re-released recently. The soundtrack itself makes use of cheap sounds, but quite often it doesn’t sound cheap. Yoshino Aoki (青木佳乃) made some excellent decisions in how to use sound, and I think it paid off in a lot of ways.

Her decisions paid off especially with this track, where it’s very much about atmosphere and minimalism. The sounds have to put in a lot of work as there’s so little going on. It works well.

I’m not sure if I did the track justice, but I got across something about it well enough. There’s a lot one could dig into with it, of course, and I scraped the surface.

Yoshini Aoki’s “Freefall” (“自由落下”) is from the soundtrack for Breath of Fire IV, Breath of Fire IV: Original Soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy.

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A heaving sound in a murky space. Other sounds seem to drip and vibrate around it, whilst another rings out muffled. It’s a space seemingly unpleasant.

A brief pause before resuming, and that ringing rings from a higher place. There’s a sense of the minimal coming through, then another pause and a return to what came before.

It’s difficult to tell if there is a fast or slow pace to what is happening, and it creates an unease that comes through. It creates a sense of malice, and it’s difficult to tell if it is intentional. But it is all sorts of uncomfortable through this minimal space with no room for breathing, and it remains as such as the sounds fade and the song ends.