Overview

Ateler Annie: Alchemist of Sora Island is a DS spinoff for the long-running Ateier series. Its score was entirely composed by Daisuke Achiwa, who hasn't done a solo soundtrack since Kuroi Hitomi no Noire and Taishou Mononoke Ibunoroku, which were both fantastic in my opinion. Speaking of which, a number of tracks on here quite remind me of Kuroi Hitomi. If you liked that soundtrack, you should definately check out this one and vice versa. Now to the bulk of the one disc soundtrack itself...

Body

The two vocal songs here, "Friday" and "Shiny", are by Mana-Khemia 2 returnee Mami Yanagi. Here, Yanagi has a chance to show how she deals with more energetic rock-oriented tracks and she does do fantastically. Yanagi effortlessly keeps up with the pace of the tracks and really helps the songs come alive. Both songs have their melodies interspersed throughout the soundtrack, which is always one of my favourite touches in a soundtrack. Most obviously, the "Friday" melody is in "Everyday is Friday" and the "Shiny" melody is in "Citrus", but this certainly are not the only instances. Both of these songs are in Atelier Vocal Historia as well, which is ideal for those just interested in the vocal music.

Fortunately, the background music also stands up well. Daisuke Achiwa is my favourite Gust composer and almost all the tracks he's composed are 5 star in my mind. As a result, the instrumental pieces on the soundtrack are a real delight to me. There's an immense charm to it that strongly appeals to me and I can imagine the game being a tremendous deal of fun if the gameplay matches up to the music. It's largely fun, light-hearted music that has always been part of the appeal of Gust music. While a lot of the tracks sound like they are from Kuroi Hitomi, there is one that I definitely feel is like a Taishou Mononoke composition, "Grandfather's Story". The oriental flute and strings would definately not be out of place on that soundtrack.

As might be expected from Achiwa, the battle themes are awesome too. They certainly show that Achiwa doesn't need electric guitars and high quality synth to create rocking tunes. "Cloud Buster" reminds me a lot of the battle themes from Ar tonelico II with the similar drum work and the main melody being played out on piano and synth. Meanwhile the opening of "Storm Bringer" is uncharacteristic for Achiwa, but soon the Achiwa I know and love comes in. The piano melody and synth vocals here reminded me of Achiwa's battle themes from Kuroi Hitomi. "Accursed Seal" has a rapid harpsichord opening accompanied by intense drumming that really builds up the tension. Once again the main melody is played by Kuroi Hitomi-esqe piano and backed by synth vocals. I believe this is a final battle theme and I can imagine it'd work well in one. However, I do feel that this may be Achiwa's weakest final battle theme but, given "La Folia" is an arrangement of this, Achiwa certainly more than made up for it there.

The Atelier series theme that's been in everything from Atelier Marie to Mana-Khemia 2 is unsurprisingly here too. Halfway through "That Sadness Is A Treasure", it is performed on electric piano. There are some nice bonus tracks at the end too. Firstly, there are arrangements of Atelier Marie and Atelier Viorate's workshop themes! I'm not sure why they're here though, but maybe there's cameos? The final two bonus tracks are Off Vocal versions of the songs, which I always love. While the vocalists are good, it is nice to hear the songs without the dominating vocals and better be able to appreciate the musicians. In all four of Achiwa's new vocal pieces — "Hajimari no Oka", "La Folia", "Friday", and "Shiny", it's also clear that Achiwa has improved his drum samples too. Before they sounded more like dull thudding but now they're more crispy, solid, striking, and more accurate to how real rock drums sound. I'm not sure why Achiwa doesn't just hire a real drummer though.

Summary

In summary, this album fulfilled my expectations as Achiwa's latest solo score. He offers plenty of peppy area themes, rocking battle themes, and sentimental cues, as well as several solid vocal tracks and a few bonus tracks. It's also worth noticing that this album has Enquete pages featuring a soundtrack diary and sheet music. I can imagine that this style of fun light-hearted music may not be everybody's cup of tea so those who can't stand this style of music may be best to stay away. However, those who have liked his past work, especially his solo score to Kuroi Hitomi no Noire, should find this one delightful.