Overview

Hopeful Weeds is the name given to Yasunori Mitsuda's fan club. During the time period in which the fan club has been established, Yasunori Mitsuda has put out various volumes of CDs, each containing two tracks, for his fans' listening pleasure. The sixth volume offers much more than two tracks. Instead it features five themes from the mobile phone game Deep Labyrinth. Unlike the Deep Labyrinth Game Sound CD for the DS game, all of these pieces are arranged by Mitsuda himself. Shall we peek inside?

Body

The album opens up with "Deep Labyrinth", a beautiful theme with mysterious harp and piano accompaniment and some beautiful woodwind in the melody line. The next theme, "To the Labyrinth" is absolutely beautiful unlike Mitsuhara's version. It contains some deep woodwind lines, a beautiful harp line, and a choir section that is just absolutely stunning. To say this one doesn't develop anywhere would be blasphemy.

"Sword of a Lost Legend" is definitely an interesting track. The instrumentation, such as organ, woodwind, and chimes, are put together extremely well in both terms of melody and accompaniment. I also think the Celtic feel implemented, in addition to the mysteriousness, help to convey the track name quite well. "Maiden of the Crystal" also starts out quite mysteriously. The use of the bass guitar and woodwinds creates an extremely airy atmosphere while the chimes in the background help to maintain the mystery inherent within this track. The melody produced in this track is also captivating.

Lastly, "Land of Dreams – Ending Theme" is exclusive to this release. It's another Celtic inspired tune, with some beautifully enchanting chime accompaniment and a powerfully moving woodwind melody.

Summary

These pieces are great examples of Mitsuda's take on Celtic music. There are a variety of themes, each powerful in their own way. Aside from the Deep Labyrinth Game Sound CD, which contains some oof Mitsuhara's arranged versions of these themes, it's the only official release of the music for Deep Labyrinth. It does contain an exclusive theme though, so you may want to seek it out.