Majora’s Mask is indisputably a dark game. The atmosphere created by the writing, stylistic choices and thematic events is heavy and unsettling. The effort is helped greatly by Koji Kondo’s disquieting soundtrack, which results in the game working on all fronts to set the player adrift with uncertainty and anxiety.
One of the eeriest parts of the game’s score is the ocarina song that the Happy Mask Salesman teaches Link: the “Song of Healing,” which sounds a lot cheerier than it is (kind of like the Salesman himself). It’s a melancholic song that has the ability to create magical masks from people’s souls, demonstrated by Link’s creation of the Zora and Goron Masks from the dying Mikau and the deceased Darmani.
But the “Song of Healing” has some champions ready to transport it to a new genre. The jazz band The Consouls, sticking to their specialty of dressing video game themes in groovy new suits, brings us this warming cover of an otherwise unsettling piece.
The Consouls have transformed the “Song of Healing” from an eerie, depressing tune into a sweet-sounding waltz. It’s no longer melancholic and dark; just melancholic. It’s the kind of song that you would slow-dance to while remembering the good old days gone by. It has my seal of approval as a jazz cover done overwhelmingly right.
Check out The Consouls on YouTube and Spotify, and throw it back to our article on the band’s rendition of “Midna’s Theme,” back when the Medli’s Melodies segment was still known as “Music Monday.”
