Legend of Mana, released for the PlayStation in 1999, features music composed by Yoko Shimomura. She had previously composed for several Square games including Live A Live and Parasite Eve and had originally joined Square for the purpose of composing music for fantasy role-playing games. Of all her compositions, Shimomura considers the soundtrack to Legend the one that best expresses herself. Shimomura claims that she prefers "passionate music that comes from the heart", and that she has to "feel the emotions of a piece in the extreme before I am able to write" the music by putting herself in the same mood as the piece is supposed to be in. Legend of Mana featured the first vocal track of any Mana game, "Song of Mana", which also serves as the game's opening theme. It was sung by Swedish vocalist Annika Ljungberg, who was chosen by Shimomura because she "wanted to stay away from working with someone popular that everyone already knows". After hearing a sample of Annika's music, she flew to Sweden "straight away" to do an analog recording of the song. Four of the game's tracks were released as part of Drammatica: The Very Best Works of Yoko Shimomura, an arranged album highlighting the composer's work: "Legend of MANA ~Title Theme~", "Hometown Domina", "Colored Earth", and "Bejeweled City Ruined". Shimomura carefully chose the songs to be included on the album based on their apparent popularity among fans and how suitable they are for orchestra. In addition to the soundtrack album, a promotional album of music from Legend of Mana was produced and was included with preorders of the game in North America.
Read more about this topic: Music Of The Mana Series