Milan Records releases music from the hugely popular anime franchise Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time ever outside of Japan. Available everywhere now are 11 original soundtracks, including music from both the original Fullmetal Alchemist television series and the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series, as well as soundtracks from the franchise’s two feature-length films, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa and Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos...

Fullmetal Alchemist: TV Animation Theme Song Collection: The Instrumentals takes 8 of the anime's theme songs and transforms them into classical music compositions. The album runs for 37 min, 37 sec and I was impressed at how different these reworkings were. In some instances it's simply a case of changing the speed ('Ready Steady Go' is slower allowing the intricacy of the theme to shine more) to deliver a totally different sound. But the approach to the reworking of each track is different, which makes for an interesting listen.

I have never been overly bothered about owning the original version of the songs, but these reworkings made me appreciate how well written the originals are. The reworkings for classical ensemble is impressive, especially when you consider each song has a very different approach and uses different instruments.

Track listing:

01 - Melissa (5:18)
02 - Kesenai Tsumi (4:55)
03 - Ready Steady Go (4:24)
04 - Tobirano Mukoue (4:39)
05 - Undo (4:24)
06 - Motherland (5:22)
07 - Rewrite (4:38)
08 - I Will (4:03)

8

Darren Rea