You may have heard of Eminence.  Or, you may not have, in which case you’re missing out on one of the most interesting things happening in symphonic game music.

I wrote about them quite a few years ago when I still lived in Melbourne; unlike many other things in my life, I think I actually got it right at the time.  It’s about the music, sure, but it’s also about the importance of what Hiroaki Yura was trying to do by refreshing what is largely a dying market (in a very literal sense – have you been to a symphony recently?) through challenging what ‘classical’ music really means.

Classical symphonies have been stagnating for decades now; attendance rates are falling and the perceived relevance to your average person is at an all time low.  Put it this way – how many symphonies have you or people you know been to over the last year?  Now, to put it in context, how many people do you know have gone to see Wicked, anything by Cirque de Soleil, or generic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical #52?  Classical music has an image problem, and it’s a big one. Continue reading →