\"This is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place. Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room.\"
Notes:
The Velvet Room is one of the most important yet most mysterious locations that recurs throughout the Persona series. Its theme as established in Persona 3 is known as The Poem for Everyone's Souls or sometimes Aria of the Soul (although in musical terms it's really more of a vocalise, but that's beside the point).
Being a song without words made this tune a perfect fit for me to play on the theremin! The theremin is one of the first electronic instruments and one of the only instruments to be played without physical contact. The closer my right hand is the vertical antenna, the higher the pitch, and the farther away my left hand is from the horizontal antenna, the louder the volume. Combining these two hands means you can literally play notes out of thin air! It's very fun but also very challenging.
Though this theme appears throughout the Persona series (and Persona 5R just released!), it was actually Persona 3 that I was thinking most about while making the arrangement for me and David. Without going into too much detail, there is a major post-apocalyptic feel to Persona 3 because a majority of the city suffers under what they think is a disease that has no cure. Victims of the disease are reduced to a vegetative state and more of the population gets infected, the city becomes cold and abandoned.
Meanwhile in the real world, the pandemic of COVID-19 has caused unprecedented and catastrophic changes to our lives, to our livelihoods, and to our social interactions with others. It cannot be exaggerated how brutal and damaging this virus has been, and it is a tragic irony that the only practical form of combating it is physically distancing ourselves from others, including (in many cases) the real-world social links we form that make our lives most worth living.
But I chose to arrange The Poem for Everyone's Souls not because I think of it as a sort of prelude to the apocalypse. The Velvet Room is a place of hope. It is where you realize your powers. Its inhabitants are on your side; they act as guides and oversee your journey. Ultimately, I feel there is beauty, bravery, and inspiration to be taken from this piece. However dark it may be, a flame still survives.
Anyway, one last detail, I chose to release this on April Fool's Day not because it's a joke (far from it, this might be the most dramatically serious piece I've ever tackled on this channel so far) but because there will be plenty of fun and lighthearted pieces that other friends in the video game music community will release today, and that will provide some much-needed contrast. Thanks for watching this; now go watch those, and next time I'll do a fun and lighthearted piece too!
Credits:
Daniel Romberger - Arrangement, Mixing, Video Editing, Theremin
David Russell - Piano
