Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life Rhapsody / Ryoma Maeda
“Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life Rhapsody” composed by musician Ryoma Maeda, is a captivating and beautiful piece that unfolds with a grand soundscape of strings and synthesizers.
Boldly incorporating drum and bass rhythms, it creates a unique and original world view that fuses classical and contemporary musical elements.
The dramatic development, reminiscent of watching a movie, stirs the listener’s imagination, as if the pure fantasies of youth and the mature emotions of later years are intertwined.
This work, filled with overwhelming energy and worthy of being called a “rhapsody,” is the result of Ryoma Maeda’s exceptional musical sense and genre-defying free thinking.
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Ryoma Maeda Interview
Q: The title “Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life Rhapsody” is incredibly unique. How did this idea come to you?
Ryoma Maeda:
The inspiration comes from a self-styled title I’ve been using at the beginning of my profile since around the time I released the album FANTASTIC SUICIDE. The title I gave myself is “幻想交響少年晩年音楽家” (Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life Musician), and this track title is directly based on that.
So to explain the origin of the track title, I first need to talk about how I came up with that personal tagline.
It was actually inspired by a phrase I found on Shing02’s Wikipedia page — “少年実業家 of an abstract adventure company” (roughly “young entrepreneur of an abstract adventure company”). I thought it sounded so cool, and I wanted to create something similarly mysterious and unique for myself.
The “Fantastical Symphony” part doesn’t have a deep specific meaning—it just sounded good to me, both visually and phonetically. I used “Boy” because it fits the concept of FANTASTIC SUICIDE, but since I’m not exactly a “boy” anymore, I added “Late-Life” as a kind of self-aware, playful twist.
When I was thinking of the track title, I felt that the combination of sweeping strings and chaotic, childlike beats fit the phrase “Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life” quite well. Still, something felt missing.
That’s when the word “Rhapsody” came to me — it captured the feel of those wild, playful beats. So I added it, and that’s how Fantastical Symphony: A Boy’s Late-Life Rhapsody was born.
Q: This piece blends elements from classical, drum & bass, and contemporary music. Why did you choose this combination?
Ryoma Maeda:
The foundation of this track actually comes from a remix I did for a string ensemble called THE MEGANE STRINGS. So naturally, it carries classical string elements.
As for the drum & bass influence — that genre was huge during the mid to late ’90s, which was when I was a teenager. That era had a huge impact on me musically, and drum & bass has always been my favorite type of beat.
That said, I’ve always preferred slightly broken or off-kilter rhythms over standard drum & bass patterns, and I think that preference is clearly reflected in this track.
Q: Were there any instruments, sound sources, or gear that you were especially particular about?
Ryoma Maeda:
These days, I mostly use Logic Pro and barely any hardware, but this track was actually produced quite a while ago. At the time, I was working in Cubase and used hardware sound modules like the YAMAHA MOTIF-RACK.
I still love YAMAHA’s piano and string sounds, and in this piece, I combined live strings from THE MEGANE STRINGS with the MOTIF-RACK’s string patches. I paid a lot of attention to how the live and digital textures interact with each other.
Q: Did your own experiences or “fantasies” from your boyhood influence this piece in any way?
Ryoma Maeda:
Not directly, but the kind of chaotic stage scene you see in the cover illustration—with an orchestra, tons of synthesizers, and an overwhelming sense of sound—that’s definitely a world I’ve always dreamed of. That aesthetic or “fantasy” has been with me since I was a kid, and I think it naturally seeps into my work.
Q: Is there a particular moment or element in the track you’d like listeners to pay special attention to?
Ryoma Maeda:
Definitely the ending, where the beat gradually falls apart. That kind of chaotic, playful collapse—honestly, that’s the kind of thing I love the most.
