Some of you might remember Final Fantasy VII's official trailer (from back in 1998), and in particular, it's fine musical composition. Unfortunately, this track doesn't appear on any of Square's official music releases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-toUi9jDc
A little research learns that the track is called "Final Encounter", originally composed by someone called Steve Baker, not Nobuo Uematsu. This has probably been known by some, but it's definitely not common knowledge.
Interestingly enough, a little research learns that the track was actually recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and released exclusively on the album "The Hollywood Series - Dangerous Games", which is a collection of musical promos. It's official description is:
"A distinctive collection of themes, promos and commercials written in contemporary cinematic styles. The CD was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra augmented by contemporary instrumentation."
Perhaps even more interesting, the album contains six versions of the track. The main track (a) is the one heard in the trailer, but there's also a toned-down version with orchestra-only (b), possibly the most interesting one of all other versions. Then there's a shortened 1-minute version with some sort of helicopter effect (c), and a version with only the synthesizer-layer (d). Last, there's a 60 seconds version and 30-seconds version of the main track.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy to find more information on this Steve Baker. There are more musicians that go by his name, so it's not always clear who's who. Anyone with better web research skills could surely come up with more information on him, which I think would be interesting.
In any case, you can listen to the tracks here:
http://www2.playkpmmusic.com/pages/viewcd/viewcd.cfm?view=1663
Obviously, die-hard FFVII merchandise collectors will need to purchase this CD immediately. ;)
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