SNES to sleep: 'Secret of Mana' music turned to lullabies
In the 1993 Super Nintendo game Secret of Mana, players have at it with axes, spears, whips, swords, and even javelins. It sounds like the stuff of nightmares, not sweet dreams — but wait until you hear the music as reinterpreted by a duo known as Gentle Love.
Gentle Love is video game composer Norihiko Hibino and pianist AYAKI. Hibino has written music for several video games, most prominently for the Metal Gear Solid series. On the side, he collaborates with AYAKI to create lullaby music from video game scores such as those for the Final Fantasy series.
Lullabies of Mana features Gentle Love's take on the music originally composed by Hiroki Kikuta. Pushing the possibilities of the 16-bit system, Kikuta wrote music described by one reviewer as including "Debussian impressionist styles, his own heavy electronic and synth ideas, and even ideas of popular musicians (such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and even Queen)."
That's a lot to process when you're just trying to nod off, but Gentle Love make it all sound supremely serene.