[Exclusive Interview] Laurence Manning discusses Trio of the Goddesses, the debut album for the Laurence Manning Trio

Today, June 9, 2022, the Laurence Manning Trio has released their first Legend of Zelda arrangement album: Trio of the Goddesses. This is also the group’s first album project together. 

The Laurence Manning Trio, as the name implies, consists of three members: founder and pianist Laurence Manning, violinist Daphnée Sincennes Richard, and cellist Lou Dunand-Vincent.

Trio of the Goddesses takes 17 songs from multiple games in the Zelda series and reimagines them for the group’s three instruments of choice. This leads to a wonderful blend of music featuring the piano, violin, and cello.

Naturally, we at Zelda Universe were excited to hear about this upcoming Zelda album. That’s why I reached out to Laurence Manning to learn all we could about the upcoming release.

Speaking With Laurence About The Trio

Zac Pricener: To start, if you want to introduce yourself to everyone: What you do, your education experience, and all of that. You know, to say hi to everyone.

Laurence Manning: I’m Laurence Manning, and I’m a pianist, arranger, composer, and a great gamer. And the Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game series. I love the music. So, since my childhood, I’ve played Zelda games, and I wanted to play Zelda music. 

About my education. I have a doctorate in music from the University of Montreal. And I’m a classically trained pianist. I have arranged video game music for some years now. Since 2017.

Zac: Nice. So this is your fifth year, then.

Laurence: Yes, professionally. When I was younger, I also played video game music, but I didn’t see this as my future career. One day, it clicked. I wanted to make this my life to make game music. So I released my first album in 2019, a game music album, and it included some Zelda arrangements for piano. And I also made a video  It was in 2018 on YouTube, and I was wearing the princess’s dark clothes (from Twilight Princess) to play music from A Link to the Past.

Zac: That’s cool, you went all out for it.  that’s I was just thinking about that. You said it’s been five years of doing this professionally. So this is a very nice way to celebrate your fifth anniversary of it. That’s perfect.

What are your favorite things about the Zelda music and the series? Mostly the music, but everything in general.

Laurence: I think first it’s nostalgia because it was the first video game I remember as a child (besides Mario Bros.). But the [Zelda] music touched me more, and I really enjoy adventure games.

I think Koji Kondo is a genius with the music. I always remember the best melodies, like in A Link to the Past, which was my first game. There are a lot of great melodies that we can sing when we hear them in the games. Music also is very important in the games. Like with the Ocarina, we have to play the songs, and they bring out a lot of emotions. And yes, I think that’s what I love best about the Zelda music. 

Zac: Can you tell us more about the Lauren Manning Trio? Who do you perform with and how you go from performing alone to working with other people?

Laurence: Yes, I founded the trio in 2020 with two fabulous colleagues: Lou Dunand-Vincent, a great cellist, and Daphnée Sincennes Richard, a great violinist. What’s absolutely wonderful is that we really like to play together and to work together. We are a perfect fit of personalities. We have fun, and we work hard, so the result is great. And we love to play on stage too. For now, we played mostly video game music in concerts. 

We had a great music tour with seven concerts of Zelda music. It was our first professional activity together it was to play in those concerts. It was really, really fun. It was a big challenge too, because I wrote nearer to 20 arrangements, new arrangements, for the trio.

Zac: Nice. It’s great to find people to play with who share that passion. That’s something to really love. So let’s dive into the new album. What led to the decision “We’re gonna do this particular album,” and more about how long you’ve been planning it.

Laurence: I always wanted to make a Zelda tribute album, ever since I began making video game music. And when we had this opportunity to play in concert, all these arrangements, it became evident that we should make an album like this. So I chose the songs that made the best use of the three instruments. And also songs that were available for the licensing, because I pay licenses for the album.

I made new arrangements that were not in the concert specifically for the album. But we really needed a budget and finances, so I made a fundraiser campaign on Kickstarter. And thanks to this, we were able to make this beautiful album in studios and record all the songs I wanted. And we also added a bonus track that was not announced in the Kickstarter campaign, “Fi’s Farewell.”

Zac: Oh, that’s good, “Fi’s Farewell.” That’s one of my favorites from Skyward Sword. 

That reminds me, I looked at the Kickstarter, and I saw there was another song you added as a stretch goal for Kickstarter, yes?

Laurence: With the stretch goals, there were two sounds. “Termina Field” and the “Orchestra Piece #1” from Twilight Princess.

Zac: Those will be nice to hear. And can we also learn a bit more about how you picked the initial songs? What made you decide, “OK, this song, this song, and this song, etc.”?

Laurence: It was mostly the songs that we heard a lot of great comments about after the concert. But also I chose songs that highlighted each instrument. Each one is very important. It’s not only the violin playing the melody and the others are accompanying. Each one is a voice, so it’s the trio of the Goddesses, and the title of the project is a tribute to the Goddesses in The Legend of Zelda: Nayru, Din, and Farore.

I also wanted to play songs from as many of the games as possible. I can tell you all of the songs that are on the album. We have:

• Ballad of the Goddess
• Tal Tal Heights
• Ballad of the Wind Fish 
• The Great Sea 
• The Dark World  
• Main Theme  from The Legend of Zelda
• Title Them from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Saria’s Song
• Song of Healing
• Termina Field
• Midna’s Lament
• Hidden Village
• Main Theme from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Mipha’s Theme
• Orchestra Piece #1 from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• Zelda’s Lullaby
• Fi’s Farewell

Zac: Those are all good choices. You can’t go wrong with any of those.

Laurence: We also have various moods. There are slow songs but also faster ones, more epic songs, and other, more emotional ones to create a good balance in the whole album.

Zac: That brings me to something else I was going to ask. How did you decide the themes, instruments, and structure of the songs? I’m not musically inclined, so I can only say it sounds nice, more or less. If you want to dive into that more, that would be great.

Laurence: [Certain choices] depend on the structure of the songs and the influence of the scales. If a song is a flute song and is higher, the violin can take the melody. And when it’s something lower, the cello can take that song. For example, “Ballad of the Wind Fish” is a good song to put the cellist on the spot because it has a low melody. And “Ballad of the Goddess” is great because each instrument can take a part of the melody. In the beginning, it’s only the piano. After that is the cello. And the violin brings the great melody after that. 

There is a balance. Sometimes, the songs are for the strings. And for others, it’s more for the piano, like the title theme from Ocarina of Time, which is basically a piano solo piece. But the strings, like in the games, are there for support. It’s really fun to listen to again and again, because you can notice new details that you didn’t hear the first time. It’s an album made to listen to multiple times. It’s like the original music. I think that’s also one of the things I really love about Zelda music. The music is always fun, and the music was made to listen to multiple times when we play the games.

Zac: On the more technical side, can you explain the actual work of composing an album? Such as doing the sessions for recording and working with everyone to figure out how to write it?

Laurence: There are a lot of steps. The first one is to write the music. That’s my part. I’m at my computer and I write everything I can then try it on the piano, and then we practice together. And I can make adjustments depending on how it really sounds in real life.

After we had made the fundraiser campaign, we went to the professional studios and reserved three days of recording sessions. It was a lot of work, so we practiced before because when we are at the studios, it goes really fast. You have to get ready because it’s not the place to practice. You know what you are there to play, and we have to adjust ourselves with the sounds of the place, with the piano in the place – all the details. It doesn’t sound the same as it does in my house. In the big studios, it’s really different. We have to listen to what it sounds like and do a lot of takes of each song. After that, we choose the best ones and put them all together.

And after all of this, there is the cover art of the album to make and the picture to choose. I’m really happy with how it all looks. And graphic designer, it’s my father. … All of my family also support me in the project. But it’s a lot of work and we need to have the passion to complete it. The whole team is really happy here, and the musicians too.

Zac: That’s great. It’s that final sense of completion after it’s done, and now you get to share it with everyone.

Laurence: That is really fun. My younger brother, Charles, is a great gamer. I discovered the Legend of Zelda with him and we played a lot of music together. He plays the violin and also piano. So we had a lot of memories of playing Zelda together. Everyone went to the concert and now they are so happy they can listen to the final product.

Zac: And being able to hold it in your hands and having that sense of being able to share it. You have something to say, “Look what we did.”

Laurence: I look forward to the release, and I can’t wait to get the feedback from all the Zelda fans that can listen to the album. I hope that everyone will love it as much as I do. There are a lot of backers on Kickstarter that have already received the digital album, but now I’m ready to sell the CDs. And when it will be released on June 9, it will the real thing that I will be able to send to everyone who would like to get the CDs or the digital album.

Zac: So, you told us about the releases, but you’re also doing a live virtual concert on YouTube on the same day, right? Could you tell us a bit about that?

Laurence: Absolutely. We will have our own concert on June 9 [7 p.m. EST] on the release date of the album. And we will play the songs that are on the album. We will play all the songs, and we will be able to answer the [people in the chat]. It’s a fun, live event to celebrate the album. I will be there with Daphnée and Lou and who will play. … And a lot of people who follow us and are based internationally, so it’s really fun to make something online they can attend.

Zac: I think we went over everything and got a full view of what led you to creating the album, the process, and getting ready to share it. Was there anything else you wanted to mention or share?

Laurence: Not really. I think we already covered most things. I hope that people will listen to the album and have fun. 

The album will be available on Bandcamp, and on my website, www.laurencemanning.ca. The album will be available there on June 9. But also, a few weeks later, it will be available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms service. 

Zac: Sounds good, looking forward to hearing the album. Thank you for talking with me about it.

Laurence: Thank you so much. It was really fun.

I want to thank Laurence once again for speaking with me about her work and her album. It’s always a pleasure talking to people who have a passion for their work and the games that have inspired them. And we all at Zelda Universe want to congratulate her, Daphnée, and Lou on the album’s release.

Clearly, Laurence Manning Trio has a lot of love for the Zelda series. I’ve listened to the album at this point, and I can testify that the team’s love comes to life in it. If you want to listen for yourself, you can find Laurence, the Laurence Manning Trio, and Trio of the Goddesses by visiting any of the links below. 

• Laurence Manning’s Facebook
• Laurence Manning’s Twitter
• Laurence Manning’s Patreon
• The Laurence Manning Trio