Donkey Kong Country "Forest Frenzy" Brass Ensemble (Score Video)

“Forest Frenzy” from Donkey Kong Country, composed by Eveline Novakovich and arranged for brass ensemble by Thomas Kresge.

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Featuring…
The Game Brass:
🎵 John Robert Matz: Trumpet
[http://www.johnrobertmatz.com]
🎵 Avery Yonehiro: Trumpet
[‪@jazzthatbrass3484‬]
🎵 Robby Duguay: Trumpet
[http://www.robbyduguay.com]
🎵 JohnStacy: French Horn
‪@TheJohnStacy‬]
🎵 Alana Yee: French Horn
[‪@AlanaBeDootin‬ ]
🎵 Jordan Moore: French Horn
[‪@JordanMooreMusic‬ ]
🎵 Jackie Fazekas: French Horn
[http://jackiefazekas.com/]
🎵 Daniel Romberger (DannyMusic): Trombone, Video
[‪@dannymusic‬]
🎵 Eric L.: Trombone
[‪@EricLTrombone‬
🎵 Allison Martin: Trombone
[‪@AllisonMartin‬]
🎵 Alex Hill (WarTubaFox): Tuba
[ / @wartubafox ]
🎵 Rahul Vanamali: Marimba
[‪@RahulVanamali‬]
🎵 Yusuf Rashid: Timpani, Toms, Shaker, Triangle
[‪@YusufRoshd‬]
🎵 Thomas Kresge: Arrangement, Mix, Video
[https://www.kresgemusic.com/]

🎵 Emma Ember: Album Art
🎵 Henry Faber: Logo Design
[https://twitter.com/henryfaber]

Watch more game soundtrack covers performed on brass here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsV5cKOOhPTIls75W_MBNNZ3kxfpGT-Mr

Notes from Thomas about this arrangement:

Three years ago, the idea of a forest-themed album was proposed, another in our line of biome-themed albums (e.g., snow, ghosts, and islands). With this theme in mind, two Donkey Kong tracks were considered: Forest Frenzy and Forest Interlude. Eventually, the theme was expanded to include any vaguely nature-themed area or game (namely including forests, jungles, flowers, plants, and greenery in general), and immediately the obvious choice for a Donkey Kong track became Stickerbush Symphony, one of the greatest standards of the VGM repertoire.

Stickerbush Symphony became the fifth track I arranged for Brassroots, and there it sat for a couple months… just another track on a nature-themed album. But the idea of arranging Forest Frenzy (and Forest Interlude) never left me. The thought eventually arose to simply package a handful of tracks from Donkey Kong Country into a single EP, something of an offshoot of our main album. It didn’t take much thinking to decide on what else to fill this out with. Tree Top Rock is a somewhat more obscure track from DKC that I had arrangement ideas circling around in my head since at least 2020, and DK Island Swing, already an extremely iconic track in its own right, was nearly considered for Brassino Isles before being cut in favor of DK Island from Donkey Kong 64. It felt like the nature theming of all of these tracks could be easily justified, and we would have ourselves a tight five-track Donkey Kong Country nature suite.

As mentioned before, this entire suite began as a single Stickerbush Symphony arrangement on our larger nature-themed album, Brassroots. So think of this EP as a complimentary spin-off, using the same ensemble as the primary album, and arranged at the same time. The order of the tracks was set when I decided to create this suite, but Stickerbush was the first track arranged, followed by DK Island Swing, Forest Frenzy, Forest Interlude, and finally Tree Top Rock. I also considered arranging Treetop Tumble from Donkey Kong Country 3, but ultimately dropped that (but did include a little reference to it at the start of Tree Top Rock).

The first track, Forest Frenzy, opens with the logo fanfare heard when you first power-up Donkey Kong Country. From there, it’s a fairly straightforward run through the song’s form, simply rotating the main melodic theme and background riffs around the ensemble. Throughout the entire suite, I tried to incorporate references to the other tracks, particularly the famous riff from Stickerbush Symphony. The quieter middle section of Forest Frenzy has references to all five tracks happening simultaneously!

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