After a long wait, famed Final Fantasy music composer Nobuo Uematsu and his band The Black Mages is finally releasing its new album on March 19 in Japan. Titled The Black Mages 3: Darkness and Starlight, it will be presented by Uematsu’s record label Dog Ear Records, which also took care of launching the original soundtrack of Mistwalker’s Blue Dragon.

For those not in the know, The Black Mages is led by the same man who’s been bringing us Final Fantasy music since its first iteration. He only contributed a few compositions in Final Fantasy XI, and wasn’t around to work on the 12th entry because he resigned from Square Enix. Only the FF theme song he created made it to Final Fantasy XII, but he is believed to be behind Final Fantasy XIII.

Other members of The Black Mages include seasoned guitarists Tsuyoshi Sekito who previously composed music for Squaresoft (before the merger with Enix) and Michio Okamiya, Kenichiro Fukui on the keyboard after producing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children music, former Squaresoft synthesizer programmer Keiji Kawamori who took up the bass guitar, and drummer Arata Hanyuda.

Aside from remixes of Final Fantasy tracks, The Black Mages 3: Darkness and Starlight is expected to have a bonus disc with compositions dedicated to Japanese myths. On another note, Dog Ear Records will also release the original soundtrack of Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey on January 28, and it will be filled with 56 tracks composed by Uematsu.

Source: QJ