Merregnon

Merregnon is a series of works that blend orchestral music with fantasy fiction. Since its inception in 1999, the project has produced several albums and live concert performances. The two most recent installments, Merregnon: Land of Silence and Merregnon: Heart of Ice, were premiered in 2021 and 2024 respectively, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. All projects are created, directed and produced by Merregnon Studios founder Thomas Böcker.

Merregnon productions have drawn in numerous musical collaborators known for their work in video games, such as Nobuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura, Chris Hülsbeck, and Yuzo Koshiro.

Merregnon: Heart of Ice
Merregnon: Heart of Ice, which features an original score composed by Nobuo Uematsu, was first announced on April 20, 2023. The world premiere took place on February 29, 2024, in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz presenting the music. Eckehard Stier, who has already led several concerts with music from video games, served as the conductor for this performance. The project also brings together the talents of children's author Frauke Angel and director Julien Chheng, who is in charge of the design of the characters. Merregnon: Heart of Ice is the first orchestral work Uematsu wrote for a concert hall.

Story
In the icy world of Merregnon, Kjugo, a wooden robot, and Beru, a dog, embark on a quest to find Kjugo's creator, Nuobi, who has been kidnapped by the sinister Ice Wind Dancer, Goyakai. Their journey through the realm of eternal frost is fraught with danger as they face off against the menacing Goyakai.

In a final battle, Kjugo's pure soul challenges Goyakai's freezing grip on the land. After Goyakai's defeat, Nuobi is freed from his icy imprisonment. The adventure of Kjugo and Beru revives Merregnon and fills the land once again with laughter and joy.

Reception
Merregnon: Heart of Ice was called "a thrilling adventure with high drama and a fulminant battle for humanity" by the German daily newspaper Die Rheinpfalz. Writer Ulrike Dansauer, who attended the premiere, praised the project's appeal to a wide audience: "The story is very popular with young audiences: devout listening from even the youngest children, closed eyes from adults, completely absorbed in the tale." Thomas Nickel, writer for German gaming magazine M!Games, echoed this sentiment, stating: "Despite the late hour, the younger visitors are just as fascinated as the older ones". He found the style of Merregnon: Heart of Ice to be reminiscent of the early Final Fantasy soundtracks, but "fresh and original", and commented that "the joy of the music and composition is very evident". In his view, the way the compositions speak for themselves is "excellent": "They don't need to support graphics and game systems, it's entirely up to them to convey drama and characters".

Merregnon: Land of Silence
Merregnon: Land of Silence features original music by Yoko Shimomura and a story by children's author Frauke Angel. For Shimomura, it is the first concert work of her career. The symphonic fairy tale in arrangements by Yasunori Nishiki and Jonne Valtonen was created to introduce families and younger audiences to orchestral music in the tradition of Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals and Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Lightly animated illustrations of characters and plot points accompany the music and narration. Conducted by Andreas Hanson, the work was first performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and filmed at the Stockholm Concert Hall in June 2021. In September of the same year, the video was made available free-to-view on the orchestra's website. Since 2022, performances take place worldwide, with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

While Merregnon: Land of Silence has an educational background, Böcker is particularly concerned with the entertainment aspect, one reason why the project draws on the aesthetics of video games and anime to appeal to a modern audience. Shimomura believes that those efforts are helping to "tackle some of the misconceptions around classical music." In Böcker's view, the story is a symphonic fairy tale of "courage, perseverance, solidarity and above all, freedom."

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has made available a further six videos in which Shimomura talks about her ideas and her approach to working on the respective themes for the characters in the story.

Story
In the desolate, grey world of Merregnon, orphan Miru and her dog Mako discover a wounded bird, Ikari, who leads them on an adventure to the north. Intrigued by Ikari's tales of a lush region ruled by the warrior Skissor and his captive dragon Yamakito, they set off with Miru's friend Hikito, fueled by dragon tree syrup.

Upon reaching their destination, they find Yamakito, a miserable dragon guarding Paradise, and confront Skissor, who tries to drive them away. With Ikari's help, Yamakito breaks free and his triumphant song defeats Skissor, uniting the land and ending Merregnon's long silence.

Reception
Merregnon: Land of Silence was described as a "symphonic anime" by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Deutschlandfunk spoke with Böcker in a radio feature entitled "Music education with a video game composer", and Klassik Radio elaborated on the fact that Merregnon: Land of Silence is intended to introduce children playfully to the orchestral world, on an "enchanting adventure journey" in a "symphonic anime fairy tale for the entire family." Böcker was invited to write a guest article for Gramophone about orchestral music and its power to inspire audiences young and old. In it, he emphasises the importance of a family concert that "entertains and promotes immersion", because according to him, "it awakens an enthusiasm that leads to spontaneous engagement with the subject, without any finger-wagging or other overtly educational components." In an extensive article on Wired, Shimomura and Böcker were joined by Stefan Forsberg, executive director of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Forsberg points out that music by game composers is "a part of the daily lives of so many people around the world", and the author notes that Merregnon: Land of Silence could provide "a welcome hand for struggling concert halls." In a webinar hosted by the German Embassy in Tokyo, Shimomura, Böcker, and Angel talked about the process leading up to the concert Merregnon: Land of Silence.

Merregnon, Volumes 1 and 2
In 1999, Böcker's interest in game music prompted him to approach composers around the world and invite them to collaborate on his original Merregnon CDs. Merregnon, Volume 1 was released in 2000, distributed by synSoniq Records, featuring orchestral music and narration, as well as an accompanying booklet with text and illustrations. Music from Merregnon, Volume 2 premiered at the first ever Symphonic Game Music Concert outside Japan in Leipzig, Germany, also produced by Böcker, before the full work was released one year later in 2004 by Totentanz Records, distributed by SoulFood / Sony Music. In 2005, Merregnon, Volume 2 was published in the Japanese market by Dex Entertainment, distributed by Sony Music Japan.

Merregnon, Volume 1 used almost no live instrument recordings for its soundtrack, while Merregnon, Volume 2 featured 74 orchestra musicians. For most of the composers, this was new territory, so the project's music director for the second volume, Andy Brick, had to ensure that "everyone delivered a score that the orchestra could properly perform." Brick states that synthesizers and samplers, as in volume 1, "can do a lot that you just can't do with real instruments." His task was to help the composers transfer their sound visions to the orchestra. Volume 1 and 2's principal composer, Fabian Del Priore, who developed many of the musical themes, confirmed that it gave him "a lot of experience in orchestration, notation and score writing."

Reception
Both albums were highly praised by critics. The first CD was commended for its appeal in that it "impressively shows how pompous melodies and complex themes are able to attract especially young people", according to the German magazine Amiga Plus. The website Epic Sound noted that Merregnon "brings together some of the brightest young talents in the composing world" and Music4Games attested that the project "sets new standards in the world of videogame music." German gaming network Krawall found that "hardly has any music CD ever succeeded in creating such opulent pictures in the mental eye." A verdict that PC Joker joined in its review: "This disc is a hit!"

The second CD received much acclaim as well, with the gaming website DemoNews writing that it was "simply breath-taking", magazine Nautilus admiring its professionalism and going on to say that "fans of the music from big silver screen epics will find a new treasure in Merregnon 2." MacLife went on to report "game music of Hollywood quality", while music magazine Astan, in addition to praising the music ("sounding like an epos to one of the big movies, like Troy and Gladiator"), described the booklet as "luxurious" and "simply beautiful and expensively designed." This was echoed by MangasZene ("a lovingly designed booklet"), additionally highlighting the "first rate music." The German gaming website 4Players dedicated a large special to Merregnon 2 over several months, where various interviews were conducted with Böcker and the composers.

According to Böcker, working on the two Merregnon albums was a "hallmark moment" that eventually led to the development and production of his Game Concerts series.

Composers

 * Andy Brick (United States)
 * Allister Brimble (United Kingdom)
 * Jason Chong (Australia)
 * Fabian Del Priore (Germany)
 * Gustaf Grefberg (Sweden)
 * Olof Gustafsson (Sweden)
 * Markus Holler (Germany)
 * Chris Hülsbeck (Germany)
 * Yuzo Koshiro (Japan)
 * Jogeir Liljedahl (Norway)
 * Yoko Shimomura (Japan)
 * Rudolf Stember (Germany)
 * Nobuo Uematsu (Japan)
 * Jonne Valtonen (Finland)