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Musician Forteller discusses the making of lofi Kingdom Hearts music

The album is called Video Game LoFi: Kingdom Hearts Vol. 2 - The Ocean Between and we discuss its creation with Annia 'Forteller' Saniee.

Ozzie Mejia

April 11, 2023 4:00 PM

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There is a lot about the Kingdom Hearts series that has resonated with fans over its 21 years. Part of what has made it so memorable has been its music. Kingdom Hearts' amazing soundtracks have spanned several titles and has proved nearly as timeless as Square Enix's other big time RPG franchise, Final Fantasy. It has also inspired musical artists to try their hand at covering some of the series' best tracks. Today, we explore the low-fidelity side of Kingdom Hearts by chatting with composer Annia Saniee, also known as Forteller.

Forteller talks about putting this album together alongside the folks at Curaga Records, working on it since the COVID-19 pandemic. He discusses the start of the process, taking tracks like "Simple & Clean" from the original Kingdom Hearts, and working from there. His efforts include collaborations with various artists and the team at Curaga Records in assembling mixes of different tracks like Roxas' Theme from Kingdom Hearts 2 and Xion's Theme from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

The album is called Video Game LoFi: Kingdom Hearts Vol. 2 - The Ocean Between. It's a 1xLP vinyl LP and contains ten tracks. Pre-orders are open now on Black Screen Records with a release window of June-July 2023. For more interviews like this one, be sure to subscribe to Shacknews and GamerHubTV on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?