Eminence Speaks!

Earlier this week we had a senior staff meeting at Hiro's place to discuss the pros and cons of the Passion concert, and suggest ways to improve on our production for future concerts. Of course, this always happens after every concert, and the methodology of every concert is never perfect, but it does get progressively better and efficient. That being said, we are a long way off from being where we want to be. Despite all that, we have to thank all our hardworking staff members and our volunteers for all their fantastic effort in producing the concert.

The main topic of discussion at this weeks meeting (not implying there is a meeting every week), was A Night in Fantasia 2007. As you may or may not know, we are trying something new next year in that we will be dividing ANIF, our flagship concert, into two halves and will be performed in isolation of the other. The first half, ANIF 2007: Symphonic Games Edition will be held some time in the first half of next year, and ANIF 2007: Symphonic Anime Edition will be held towards the end of 2007. It is our attempt that by doing this we give you a lot more of the goodness that you want in one sitting, and without too much or too little of a break, bring even more to you on the grand scale that ANIF is.

We have some serious celebrity composers lined up for ANIF next year, but I won't go into that right now, as I need to confirm their actual presence next year. As you know, the quality of our music and productions get better every time, and next year will be an absolute blast as we will cram in more game music into the usual full length concert. We are already hard at work preparing for this concert many months down the track. We're experimenting with new postering methods along with two new ANIF posters that we hope will be both attention capturing and simple to decode. The final playlist is almost complete, but there is still room for tweaking, so if there is still something you may want to hear, you better voice up quickly before the deal is sealed.

Currently, Passion is still continuing as they are currently performing in Singapore. This is Eminence's first international concert, so it is quite a milestone that we have achieved. Hopefully Singapore will get to experience the absolute blast that Sydney got to experience at Passion. If Singapore becomes successful, then you can expect to see Eminence expand their global reaches in the future. We can only hope.

On a different note, I will be going overseas today for 3 weeks, spending Christmas in the French Alps and New Years in Vienna, Austria. Hopefully I will be able to update while I am away, but if not, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and a Happy New Year!

I am writing this a few days after this happened, but understandably things have been very hectic due to the Passion concert this past weekend. Let me tell you this: If you missed the concert, you really missed out big time. The concert was seriously rocking. It's not my job to plug my own company, but I have been to the majority of Eminence concerts (otherwise sick or overseas during the ones I missed), and the Passion concert was incredibly amazing - a concert on a totally different level. The quality and professionalism of the music and musicians and not to mention the perfect arrangement and choices of pieces. What made things even more special was the delicate balance of the varying instruments. It is really mind blowing and blood pumping to hear un-amplified, classical violins playing alongside an electric guitar, a bass guitar with the backdrop of an exciting drumkit. But I digress, I am sure most of you who are reading this had the fortune of viewing the concert and I must tell you of the recording day Eminence had the day before the concert, the Friday the 15th.

Eminence had booked out a 12 hour session at the Studios 301 recording studios here in Sydney. Yes you heard it, 12 hours! And indeed, they worked tirelessly with our special guests, Mr Hitoshi Sakimoto and Mr Yasunori Mitsuda who had helped tremendously with performance and stylistic advice.

The day began early at 9am which pretty much meant they were going for the long haul till 9pm that night. All of the Passion musicians were present with the addition of a new member, Jy Banks, the brother of Zane Banks who took the role of second guitarist. For all you lucky fans out there, our hard working Eminence musicians recorded the entire Passion playlist at a state of
the art recording studio. We're hoping that the Passion CD album will be available early next year. The beauty of this particular album is that we had the masterful overwatch of Mr Sakimoto and Mr Mitsuda to advise on all manner of performance, style and technique.

For those who were fortunate to have pre-ordered the Passion CD or are thinking about getting it, you will be treated to a special arrangement of Radical Dreamers (Chrono Cross) where Mr Mitsuda suggested a double dub of the guitar role by Zane Banks. As with the concert, Mr Mitsuda will also be featured playing the bouzouki in several tracks from Chrono Cross, Kirite and Sailing to the World.

This recording day was also very important as the Eminence musicians began work on a pre-recording for an undisclosed project headed up by Mr Sakimoto. Unfortunately I can not tell you what this particular project is, but it will be released next year if all goes well. Suffice it to say, we were very fortunate to have Mr Sakimoto there as artistic director for this up and coming project.

The last point I will make about today is that this recording opportunity is a great boon to all you fans as our progress to using state of the art recording technology will benefit you most. You can expect to hear the very best quality of music you have ever heard from any Eminence recording and this will be a sign of great things to come for Eminence.

What a bonanza of a day!

So today I get picked up by the big cheese of Eminence, Hiroaki and lo and behold, Mr Hitoshi Sakimoto! I probably don't need to remind you who Mr Sakimoto is, but I will never the less as he is one of our main celebrity guests for our Passion concert. Mr Sakimoto was responsible for some of the greatest video game soundtracks ever written. Of particular note, Final Fantasy Tactics, released on the Sony Playstation in 1997 has in my opinion, the greatest game soundtrack. The game itself, although breaking from Final Fantasy tradition was also an extraordinary game in terms of its story, character development and game mechanics. Another mainstream (by the at I mean released in the west) work that Mr Sakimoto has worked on is Vagrant Story, released also on the Sony Playstation in 2000. Of relevance to Passion however, Mr Sakimoto was the composer of the main theme of the recently released Final Fantasy XII, of which Eminence will be performing at this years Passion.

It certainly was quite an epic day as our esteemed guests had arrived from Japan earlier that morning. By midday when I had joined the party, Hiroaki treated them to a Yum Cha lunch at the beautiful Bondi Junction Westfield. There we feasted upon a large assortment of steamed and fried dumplings, delicious sticky rice and rounded the meal with mango puddings. There Mr Sakimoto got to try his first Australian beer, a Crown Lager. Of course it was not all fun and games at the table as we were intensely discussing how certain pieces would be performed at the concert and how they would be integrated into the playlist of the concert and the proceedings of the evening.

Much to my surprise and to the dismay of my backside I learned that we would be going horse riding at Centennial Park. Here I learned that Mr Sakimoto was a very experienced and advanced rider who had won several awards in Japan for various horseback events. Turns out that Hiroaki was also quite familiar with horses having ridden many in his childhood. Fortunately the friendly folks at Moore Park stables were very helpful and off we went at our slow trot around the Park. It certainly was quite an experience for myself as I know I will be looking forward to the next time I go horse riding.

Following our one hour sojourn at the park, we went for a brief drive around Sydney's sights taking in the views of the harbour from Watsons Bay, a view of The Head and then Bondi Beach. I believe they were quite impressed. This short car trip gave Hiroaki quiet and uninterupted time to talk further about the concert with Mr Sakimoto. It was late afternoon now and they were pretty tired from the epic day out, not to mention having flown in that same morning. That was my cue to leave as I had an appointment to see Casino Royale and they needed their well deserved rest. Of course I learned they had a dinner appointment later that evening at Prime at Martin place, the award winning steak house and grill. Yum! I have learned something further about the dinner too, something very top secret which I will let you in on, at least a little bit of it. Hiroaki and Mr Sakimoto will be discussing and negotiating about a project to be undertaken next year. This project will highlight Eminence's real upward movement in the industry. But alas, I can not tell you what it is exactly, but you will all find out sometime next year.

What an awesome day. Tomorrow will be quite an action packed day as the Passion musicians will be in a recording studio, along with our guests, Mr Sakimoto, Ms Yamamoto and Mr Mitsuda who will arrive from Japan that morning in time for Sydney's concert. Stay tuned for a report of tomorrows events.

Hey there.

I just wanted to talk about the comments system here on this production diary (or blog). Basically it will work just like any other blog and for the time being I have allowed guest comments without the need to signup or create an account. Currently it looks rather not so easy to comment so i'll give you a small rundown on how to do so (if you wish to do so).

The easiest and not so obvious way to post a comment is to click the title of the blog entry you would like to comment and it will then take you to a new page which will display the entry again and a comment feedback form at the bottom of the page. Similarly on the main page you can click the 'comments' link in the entry information box on the top right of each entry. There you will also find how many other comments have been posted and other obvious news like date and time of the original post.

That is basically it. There is no obligation for you to post a comment, but every now and then I would like to know if I am doing a good job, or if you have any criticisms or suggestions on that entry or future entries.

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Later this week Mr Hitoshi Sakimoto, Passion guest and composer of the theme to Final Fantasy XII will be arriving in Sydney. Hopefully I will have the latest scoop as he does the tourist thing around Sydney. Also this Friday, Eminence will be having a recording session with Mr Yasunori Mitsuda at Fox Studios. Then on Saturday, the big Sydney Passion concert. A very busy week indeed, so stay tuned.