NieR:Piano Journeys
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Album Title: NieR:Piano Journeys |
| Record Label: Square Enix Music |
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| Catalog No.: SQEX-11167 |
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| Release Date: April 16, 2025 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
NieR: Piano Journeys is the third official piano arrangement album for the NieR series, released for the 15th anniversary of the games. The album includes arrangements from NieR Gestalt & Replicant, NieR:Automata, NieR Replicant ver 1.22474487139…, and NieR Re[in]carnation. The arrangements are handled by a number of Square-Enix’s usual in-house arrangers, and each is performed by Benyamin Nuss, who has often lent his virtuoso skills to video game-related projects. Although most of these tracks have had prior piano arrangements on the first and second NieR Piano Collections albums, and even on NieR Gestalt and Replicant 15 Nightmares & Arrange Tracks, the arrangements here manage to differentiate themselves enough from the previous versions, making a worthwhile revisit to the music of NieR.
Body
The album opens with “Inori”, the only track from NieR Re[in]carnation and one of two arranged by Nuss himself, his first for the series. Fittingly, Nuss evokes chant with the solemn opening followed by simple counterpoint, before expanding to fuller piano textures. Rachmaninoff influences quickly reveal themselves here in the forceful, undulating chords and thicker textures (present for much of the album), which are a suitable showcase for Benyamin’s abilities, as well as a great stylistic fit for the darker lyricism of NieR’s melodies. Thankfully the intense chords and runs never swallow up the melody so that virtuosity never feels excessive or repetitive, and instead they augment the sense of desperate supplication in the piece, helped of course by the emotional performance. Nuss later also arranges Kainé, this time closer to his own compositional style in some spacious Ravel-like segments. I love the way he places the melody in the lower registers when the original accompaniment figure comes in, and the complex transition later on the piece is a welcome harmonic enhancement given the simplicity of the original. The arrangement still overall plays it a bit more safe than I would like, but it is still as emotional a piece as ever.
Two tracks are arranged by Hiroyuki Nakayama, a veteran for Square Enix arrangements but also new to the music of NieR. The first of these is “Emil”, one of the four arrangements on the album that clock in at over 6 minutes. At that length I would have liked more melodic variation, but Nakayama gives it enough dramatic progression with its delicate opening and flourishes evoking wind; a furious climax; and then recapitulation of the melody in a sudden new key that has the feel of finding a new resolve to march onwards after a tumultuous event, even though that march is towards an inevitable demise. It’s a wonderfully quiet and tragic ending to the piece, which sets it apart from the relentless 15 Nightmares piano arrangement. “City Ruins” takes an approach closer to Nayakama’s efforts on the Final Fantasy Piano Opera series, staying more faithful to the original. On the one hand this is very impressive as Nuss manages to juggles three independent lines at huge distances on the piano: the bass chords, the middle melody, and the repeated treble figure; on the other hand it means that as an arrangement it isn’t otherwise interesting or novel. When Nakayama does change things up, he brings back some of his trademark runs and flourishes from earlier arrangements, which here veer on excess, especially compared to the more restrained arrangement from NieR: Automata Piano Collections. Despite these, Nuss keeps the performance emotional and engaging.
Mariam Abounnasr is much more seasoned with NieR music, and is the arranger for relatively shorter tracks: “Amusement Park” and “Hills of Radiant Winds”. On the former, Abounnasr takes a more sombre approach, separating it both from the original and its Piano Collections sibling. The first half is full of rubato and legato passages, and the ornamentation here is more delicate and sad rather than playful. I really appreciate that for the climax, Abounnasr shifts to waltz meter in a delightfully twisted dance, providing a strong contrast with what comes before that doesn’t rely on the usual techniques to produce a climactic effect. The runs of thirds are also a welcome classical inflection that enhance the feeling of barely-masked madness. “Hills of Radiant Winds” is another track with a strong Rachmaninoff-feel with its staccato waltz backing, which is partly inherited from the original. The careful pedalling here is the star of the arrangement, providing off-beat impulses that throw off the simple rhythm of the track and keep things bubbly and a touch unpredictable. Although it is the shortest track of the album, it is one of my favourites.
Another frequent NieR arranger here is Sachiko Miyano. Her first arrangement here is “Peaceful Sleep”, a quieter arrangement that is a reprieve from the other more intense offerings of the album. It isn’t quite as interesting as its Piano Collections counterpart which had many neat jazz inflections, but this is still a pleasant little track. There’s also a lovely little improvisatory interlude here that I wish the album had more of. The “Fleeting Words” arrangement is much better, and is another long track. Miyano pulls off a wonderful sleight by introducing the melody underneath a trickling upper line that sounds like it would come from a separate piece entirely. That trickling line then becomes an undercurrent that helps propel the arrangement to a strong and emotional climax with wonderfully thick and torturous chords.
Last to be discussed are the arrangements by Natsumi Kameoka, who is also new to NieR arrangements with this album. Her first track is “Song of the Ancients”, another of the longer tracks. Kameoka is great at rhythmic variation and momentum, which coupled with Nuss’s incredibly passionate playing make this a standout track. I also appreciate that she didn’t draw too much from the “Devola” version of the original, as the existing arrangements do. Although the earlier 15 Nightmares piano version remains exceptional, I’m happy to have to this wonderful new arrangement alongside it. Kameoka’s “Weight of the World” arrangement is disappointingly safe in comparison, worsened by its excessive length, though it does succeed at being more interesting than its Piano Collections counterpart. Part of the issue here is that with the melody so strong at the fore of this track that the accompaniment figures really needed to have more identity. In a way this is an issue in varying degrees with the rest of the album as well; since all of the tracks chosen were originally tracks with vocal leads, all of the melodies are very lyrical and the harmonic structures rather basic, so that the album would’ve done well to feature some of the tracks from the soundtracks that were less vocal-forward. This could’ve also helped to separate the album from the previous piano albums, since all but two tracks here had been arranged previously.
Summary
Overall, I feel NieR: Piano Journeys is the strongest of the piano arrangement albums thus far. I had high expectations due to the strong source material and the talent of those involved, and even though I was hoping for more melodic and harmonic variation (and even more varied track selection), the more time I spent with the album the more I appreciated it simply for what it was. Benyamin Nuss’s performance completely sells the emotion of each track, and his virtuosity is fittingly applied to the Rachmaninoff-lite idiom found in many of the arrangements. Even tracks that I have become tired of in other forms such as “Weight of the World” are enjoyable enough for me on this album, so that I was happy to find myself enjoying again the sad yet still very beautiful world of the music of NieR.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
4.5
Posted on April 30, 2025 by Tien Hoang. Last modified on April 30, 2025.
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