Aw man, I love hearing three versions of the same song. Don't you?

End sarcasm.

Well, I thought Atelier Rorona had been put to bed, so to speak. The game has been around quite some time in Japan, and already had its sequel (Atelier Totori) released. Nonetheless, here we are with an arranged album of sorts...

All the usual suspects are here (Kazuki Yanagawa can be accepted as a veteran at this point, he's been doing work with Gust for 3 or 4 years now). We have a couple of vocal character themes, we have their instrumental *and* off-vocal counterparts (instrumental puts an instrument in place of the vocal melody, off-vocal is your karaoke track). There are also instrumental arrangements for songs from the OST.

Of the 3 vocal themes found here (for the three female characters pictured on the cover), I think the most musically interesting piece is also the one with the most annoying, childish vocal performance. "0.8cm" is for our puppeteer friend, the one with the two cat-puppet things. Track 3. Listen to the audio sample. Marvel at the annoying vocal performance. But also note the instruments backing the track. Good stuff.

Compared to the OST, which was fairly strong, I can't exactly recommend this album, even to Gust fans. It's an interesting addition, but compared to past arranged albums released – such as SSH's rock arrange albums for the Atelier Iris series, or even the Reisefuhrer vocal album for Atelier Elie – Kanarien just can't compete.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann