Ode to Final Fantasy The White Mages

• 1 Eternity, Memory of Lightwaves (Final Fantasy X-2) 03:43
• 2 Freya's Theme (Final Fantasy IX) 03:09
• 3 The Promise (Final Fantasy XIII) 03:44
• 4 Under the Rotting Pizza (Final Fantasy VII) 04:06
• 5 Hymn of the Fayth (Final Fantasy X) 03:58
• 6 Chocobo Theme (Final Fantasy) 02:09
• 7 Aerith's Theme (Final Fantasy VII) 03:12
• 8 Listen to the Cries of the Planet (Final Fantasy VII) 03:57
• 9 Atonement (Final Fantasy XIII) 04:39
• 10 Melodies of Life (Final Fantasy IX) 05:10
• 11 The Prelude (Final Fantasy) 03:27
• Total Runtime 41:14

Info for Ode to Final Fantasy

Peter Broderick presents new project The White Mages with debut album Ode to Final Fantasy. An album celebrating the music of the legendary Japanese video game series, with 11 new recordings of Broderick’s favourite songs, from the much-loved ‘Aerith’s Theme’ to deeper cuts such as ‘Hymn of the Fayth’ and ‘Eternity, Memory of Light Waves’.

Broderick’s own music origin story began with the Final Fantasy series. As a child, he was obsessed with the seventh instalment in the series, known as FFVII to fans. His mother, the poet Selah Broderick, promised she’d gift him a PlayStation if he practiced the violin for 100 days in a row. An eager young Broderick took his mother up on this offer, and as he improved on the violin, he was given the PlayStation as promised. In his own words, “I learned to play music because of my drive to play video games”.

The White Mages name is a tribute to the original series composer, Nobuo Uemastu, who had his own band called The Black Mages. In the world of Final Fantasy it is the Black Mages who use offensive magic such as fire and lightning, while the White Mages are the healers. Each and every note on Ode to Final Fantasy was played or sung by Broderick himself, but the project is intended to be open to other fans of the series. Perhaps one day Broderick will be just one of many White Mages within a larger group, casting Cure upon the world through playing the music of Final Fantasy.

During the pandemic, Broderick secretly started playing the video games again, and secretly started listening to their soundtracks, and secretly watched videos of people talking about the games, which resulted in feeling it was all a guilty pleasure. Over time though, Broderick came to realise the games genuinely spoke to him – the stories, the characters, and above all, the music. After quietly dreaming for years about recreating some of the music from these games, in 2025 Broderick started to act.

Once he got started, it all just poured through. He delighted in breathing new life into the work of Uematsu, along with other composers from the series, Noriko Matsueda and Masashi Hamauzu. Some songs (’Freya’s Theme’, ‘Under the Rotting Pizza’) are note-for-note recreations of the original game music, while others are more Broderick’s own personal interpretations (‘Melodies of Life’, ‘Chocobo Theme’).

Erased Tapes and Broderick pledge to donate half of all proceeds from the album to Doctors Without Borders. Adding to this, Broderick says “As I began to share this project with friends, someone close to me suggested donating some of the proceeds to a real-world cause. To take this world of fantasy and escapism and bring it into our broken, sad and beautiful world with some tangible consequence. I felt it was a very good idea, taking what was already a very meaningful project to me and imbuing it with even more meaning and purpose.”

The White Mages

Performed, recorded and mixed by Peter Broderick
Mastered by Satoshi Okamoto

Peter Broderick
Born in 1987, Peter Broderick is an American-born multi-instrumentalist and singer, brought up in a musical household in Oregon. In his later teenage years he became entwined in the indie folk scene in Portland, recording for the likes of M. Ward, Laura Gibson and Dolorean. 2007 saw Broderick move across the ocean to Denmark, where he began a long collaboration with the band Efterklang, touring the world with them for the next five years. Meanwhile he recorded several albums of solo material, ranging from the sparse classical compositions of his debut album Float to the homemade folk music on Home — constantly experimenting with different musical genres, and also being commissioned to write music for several films and contemporary dance works. He then lived in Berlin for several years where he met and collaborated with many like-minded artists including German pianist Nils Frahm under the name Oliveray and Englishman Greg Haines as Greg Gives Peter Space.

Now known as one of the label’s veteran recording artist, Broderick joined Erased Tapes with his wanderings into the realms of film, dance and documentary scores. 2009’s Music For Falling From Trees, a 30-minute piece in seven sections, was created for a contemporary dance by London-based choreographer Adrienne Hart at Neon Dance. It was followed by Music For Congregation in 2010 and his classic score Music For Confluence, created in 2011 for Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s spell binding documentary film on five unsolved murders in Idaho. Held together by a dialogue of voices, his 2012 album These Walls Of Mine reveals Peter’s innermost thoughts in an exploration from gospel and soul to spoken word, beatboxing and rap. In 2013 he re-located back to America, living at the Pacific Ocean near where he grew up. Returning to his home where his musical journey began, Peter completed the circle with the release of Float 2013. Encouraged by label founder Robert Raths the album was given a “second chance“ with the help of Nils Frahm who remastered the record.

Inspired by John Cage‘s so-called mesostics, his 2016 album Partners saw Peter experiment with chance, surrendering an entire song’s composition to the roll of dice in a series of voice and piano recordings. The composer closed the year with his equally exceptional Grunewald recordings — paying homage to the discrete yet majestic Grunewald Church, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, that’s become a haven for an entire generation of contemporary composers.

2017 marked the birth of Allred & Broderick — a new duo project between Broderick and his musical partner David Allred.

In 2020 he surprised the world with a drop release of Blackberry, his first vocal based album in over five years, followed by the satellite release The Wind That Shakes The Bramble in 2021 — containing additional work from the same sessions, as well as a beautiful two-part rework from Bing & Ruth and the new 22-minute title track; an expansive and meditative ambient odyssey, a balm for the baffling chaos of the current era.

In August 2022 Peter announces the release of Piano Works Vol. 1 (Floating in Tucker’s Basement) — a new comprehensive album of solo piano recordings. Shining a light on the artist’s ongoing piano-based compositions, this release offers an opportunity to celebrate his more intimate work.

Peter continues to travel the world, performing solo piano concerts and collaborating with a vast array of different musicians and artists.

This album contains no booklet.