Shadow of the Colossus, the beloved action-adventure game from SIE Japan Studio and Team Ico, has its PlayStation 4 remake release just around the corner for February 6th. To commemorate the release, iam8bit and PlayStation have teamed up to have special release of the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack on vinyl records and release limited screen prints from artists Nimit Malavia and Mark Englert.
The vinyl soundtrack will come accompanied with 35 selected tracks on two vinyl records from the legendary music composer, Kow Otani. The soundtrack will be enhanced with additional orchestral accompaniment, and the music will be remastered for the vinyl format. In addition, the records will come in a translucent color, and it will come packaged in a tri-fold sleeve with album art painted by renown artist, Nimit Malavia, and all of this will be available for purchase for only $40. There are no indications that the album will cease production after its initial sales, so there will be multiple chances to get your hands on the album.
In addition, iam8bit will be selling limited edition Shadow of the Colossus prints created by Mark Englert, Marie Bergeron, and Nimit Malavia. Mark Englert’s piece will run you $80, Marie Bergeron’s piece will be $75, and Nimit Malavia’s work will cost $85, and it is also the album art to the soundtrack. Since these are limited edition pieces, stock will run out eventually, so make sure you pick up a print before it is too late.
Kow Otani was just interviewed by the PlayStation blog regarding the upcoming album, and he weighed in on what he thought of remastering his beloved soundtrack.
When it came time to update the music, while we were unable to redo every track, we wanted to add more depth to the opening and ending, so we increased the number of musicians and added more string instruments to the original recordings. The goal of this recording was less to change the track themselves and more to make the sense of scale even bigger. […] The music feels like you might have saved someone you love, but you couldn’t save everyone you loved. For example, in the track “End of the Battle,” you would think the music would be triumphant after winning. But as a whole, this soundtrack has more in common with a prayer or a requiem.”
The Shadow of the Colossus vinyl soundtrack and limited edition prints are currently up for pre-order, and these items are expected to ship sometime within Q2 of 2018.