VGMdb
Go Back   VGMdb Forums > Discussion > Video Game Music Discussion
Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #61  
Old Jun 11, 2012, 04:27 AM
Cedille Cedille is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 2,026
Default

I was also about to suggest you could use SEMO or OSV as a proxy. Nowadays we can easily talk to composers on twitter or facebook and more composers than expected are actually willing to friendly reply, but they're not obligated to respond, and thus they often don't respond, much less answering in details to each 'question' of just one fan mail, especially considering nobody could've contacted to him until now. A formal interview offer from a site that seemingly has already been succeeding in interviewing many prominent composers has far more chances.
Reply With Quote
  #62  
Old Jun 11, 2012, 07:18 AM
Blitz Lunar's Avatar
Blitz Lunar Blitz Lunar is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 778
Default

Yeah, I agree, the e-mail might be better received coming from a site rather than a random fan.

Quote:
And who was the composer that helped you?
I'm interested in this too.
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk
Reply With Quote
  #63  
Old Jun 11, 2012, 11:36 AM
DragoonEnRegalia's Avatar
DragoonEnRegalia DragoonEnRegalia is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 100
Default

I'm interested in who supplied the e-mail as well, but it's possible that the agent composer might be trying to stay anonymous for the time being, too. So let's just contact Takenouchi via the address before worrying about who happened to know the address.
Reply With Quote
  #64  
Old Jun 13, 2012, 02:49 PM
MEATWART MEATWART is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 24
Default

Alright guys, I just wrote up an email and sent it to my friend who will translate it for me. Let's all hope this email is still valid. I already sent him an email once before but he was no longer using that email.

And with regards to who gave me the email, I'll let you all know (preferably by PM) after (and if) we get all the information from Takenouchi we need, to potentially avoid pissing anyone off. However, it was not a video game composer, but a guy that does freelance work (primarily work in commercials) and also plays in a jazz band. I highly doubt anyone here has heard of him.
Reply With Quote
  #65  
Old Jun 13, 2012, 03:22 PM
Phonograph's Avatar
Phonograph Phonograph is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 4,329
Default

I'm willing to email some composers and asking them "explain why I hate your tunes?"
that could change from fan emails, no? ;p
Reply With Quote
  #66  
Old Jun 17, 2012, 04:51 AM
Cedille Cedille is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 2,026
Default

It's about time I add Ken Nakagawa to the list. I suspect this guy is now hired by another company, not freelance, so he can't return to score Gust project anymore, but why no activity has been ever seen for the past two years.
Reply With Quote
  #67  
Old Jun 21, 2012, 02:16 AM
LiquidAcid LiquidAcid is offline
Trusted Editor
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 1,644
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
It's about time I add Ken Nakagawa to the list. I suspect this guy is now hired by another company, not freelance, so he can't return to score Gust project anymore, but why no activity has been ever seen for the past two years.
I would also be interested in the fact, that Gust doesn't want to keep their composers in-house for a prolonged amount of time (see Yanagawa). Or is this part of the recent trend to go freelance ASAP (and not so much a decision of Gust anyway)?
Reply With Quote
  #68  
Old Sep 12, 2012, 12:41 AM
Blitz Lunar's Avatar
Blitz Lunar Blitz Lunar is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 778
Default

Was there ever any progress with Takenouchi?
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk
Reply With Quote
  #69  
Old Sep 12, 2012, 07:28 PM
Garnobium's Avatar
Garnobium Garnobium is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: dumpster
Posts: 48
Default

I would ask him if he had anything to do with that really weird voice-over on the Shining Wisdom soundtrack album, but probably not at first.
Reply With Quote
  #70  
Old Sep 14, 2012, 03:55 AM
Cedille Cedille is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Tokyo
Posts: 2,026
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LiquidAcid View Post
I would also be interested in the fact, that Gust doesn't want to keep their composers in-house for a prolonged amount of time (see Yanagawa). Or is this part of the recent trend to go freelance ASAP (and not so much a decision of Gust anyway)?
I thought the latter would be the case, but now some tweets of Achiwa implies even he also left, I wonder Gust doesn't want to have their own sound team anymore, or at least doesn't care about ever lacking it.
Reply With Quote
  #71  
Old Jul 5, 2016, 04:37 PM
GDPR_delete_03 GDPR_delete_03 is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 27
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jormungand View Post
Yasunori Shiono (Lufia I & II, Energy Breaker)
Last known game work: CIMA: The Enemy (2003)
He left Neverland sometime after CIMA and worked at a soba shop for a very long time. I've heard he's apparently getting back into game composition to some extent, as he composed the title theme ("Red Spider Lily"), opening theme ("Red Spider"), main(?) theme ("Vengeance") and ending theme ("Retribution") for a Hong Kong noir-style visual novel called Red Spider, and composed three more tracks for the sequel ("Fulltime Killer", "Running on Karma", and "Exiled"). Yukio Nakajima also contributed to Red Spider 2 with the tracks "Diversion Fight" and "Undercover". If Shiono's done anything since then, the English-speaking Internet does not have any information on it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Medina View Post
What ever happened to Yuko Takehara? Like Mari Yamaguchi, she was last seen composing for video games in 1999 (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), and then disappeared until 2010 to write for Rockman 10 again. I love Yuko's music, it's a shame she's not actively composing anymore.
She didn't disappear completely. I don't know what else she's done, but she wrote the (largely disappointing with the exception of Vaati's theme) music for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, the GBA game included with the release of A Link to the Past and not to be confused with GameCube Zelda Four Swords Adventures.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Revoc View Post
Very interesting thread.

Akito Nakatsuka (Ice Climber, Excite Bike, Zelda II: Link's Awakening)
Last known game work: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (2006)
From what I can glean, he was shifted from EAD to SPD years ago and mostly does sound support and supervision. Of course, with EAD and SPD merged as EPD, it's possible he may have left or been given the boot.

Last edited by GDPR_delete_03; Jul 6, 2016 at 05:16 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #72  
Old Jul 5, 2016, 06:53 PM
Spirit_Chaser Spirit_Chaser is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 231
Default

I forgot about this thread for a while. I've been doing my own research and investigating lately, mostly of the members of Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. from the 90's. In partucular, the composers that were involved with Brandish 2 plus Satoshi Arai. They would leave one by one until the last remaining member Atsushi Shirakawa left after Vantage Master Japan.

I've been doing my best to track down Atsushi Shirakawa, Mieko Ishikawa, Naoki Kaneda, Takahiro Tsunashima, Masaru Nakajima, Hirofumi Matsuoka and Satoshi Arai. I've gotten a lot of information so far.

Atsushi Shirakawa: Goes by Tenmon now. A powerhouse of a composer. Besides his sheer amount of composition for video game music, he has written a lot of music for his original works and anime. He is still active today and can be reached through his Twitter. He actually responds, so I have been able to get composer credits for many of his games while he was in Falcom. Sometimes it's a full breakdown, sometimes he is not sure on a track, sometimes he doesn't remember the majority of it, but I've gotten many composition credits from him for The Legend of Xanadu, The Legend of Xanadu II, Ys V, The Legend of Heroes IV, Zwei!! and soon Brandish 3.

Naoki Kaneda: Known as Kim's Soundroom now. After getting his composition credits, I can say he is an incredible composer with a lot of talent now that we know almost every song that was him under Falcom. He can be easily reached through his Twitter. After Falcom he continues to work on music. I asked him the other day about what he is doing now and he said he is currently working on songs for more than one game. I've managed to get composer credits from him for The Legend of Xanadu, The Legend of Xanadu II, Ys V, and The Legend of Heroes IV, and Brandish 3.

Hirofumi Matsuoka: The first one of this group confirmed to have passed away. After getting composer credits from Atsushi Shirakawa and Naoki Kaneda, I don't think Matsuoka composed much during his early games with Falcom (maybe just sound program). He does have a Twitter, but I took too long to reach him and was unable to ask him anything due to him passing away from stomach cancer. He did start a solo project with a vocalist after leaving Falcom and you can check out "Fermata" to hear what he sounds like on his own.

Mieko Ishikawa: Another great composer that has fallen under Yuzo Koshiro's shadow. Getting a hold her seems impossible and I have no leads besides her currently being one of Falcom's directors. I don't have any composer credits for her during Brandish 2 and so on, but I can make decent guesses based on her work before that where it is easier to tell what she composed.

Masaru Nakajima: The trail for this composer went cold. He did continue to write music after leaving Falcom for the FMPSG organizartion, and released an original work titled "White Swan" (good luck trying to find that because I still haven't and there isn't even an entry for it here). I Asked both Atsushi Shirakawa and Naoki Kaneda if they knew how I could contact him or whatever happened to him, but neither of them know. I also tried contacting every current member of FMPSG but they either didn't respond or didn't know either. Not even his email works anymore and his websites shut down.

Takahiro Tsunashima: He continued for Gruppo One as a composer after leaving Falcom. After that, the trail gets cold. I asked Naoki Kaneda if he knew what happened to him or if there was a way to get a hold of him, but he doesn't know what happened to him.

Satoshi Arai: I have nothing on him at the moment.
Reply With Quote
  #73  
Old Jul 6, 2016, 01:46 AM
gotanda gotanda is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 2
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry93D View Post
He left Neverland sometime after CIMA and worked at a soba shop for a very long time. I've heard he's apparently getting back into game composition to some extent, as he composed the title theme ("Red Spider Lily"), opening theme ("Red Spider"), main(?) theme ("Vengeance") and ending theme ("Retribution") for a Hong Kong noir-style visual novel called Red Spider, and composed three more tracks ("Fulltime Killer", "Running on Karma", and "Exiled"). Yukio Nakajima also contributed to Red Spider 2 with the tracks "Diversion Fight" and "Undercover". If Shiono's done anything since then, the English-speaking Internet does not have any information on it.
I think that running the soba shop is his main priority since there hasn't been much frequency. It's also worth noting that he did upload a couple of other new songs on his Youtube channel, but those aren't for any commercial products.((First upload;second upload.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika View Post
[URL="http://vgmdb.net/artist/1158"]
Naoki Kodaka
Last work? Albert Odyssey Gaiden (Saturn, 1996)

I remember both of them fondly from the old Sunsoft NES games like Batman and Ufouria, though Kodaka did also Albert Odyssey Gaiden, which is pretty awesome.
Wikipedia says that Naoki Kodaka did work on one more game after Albert Odyssey Gaiden, but I can't find any information about that game. I think he's currently teaching as a music professor in a university of some sort.

Last edited by gotanda; Jul 6, 2016 at 01:53 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #74  
Old Jul 6, 2016, 05:21 AM
GDPR_delete_03 GDPR_delete_03 is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 27
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by gotanda View Post
I think that running the soba shop is his main priority since there hasn't been much frequency. It's also worth noting that he did upload a couple of other new songs on his Youtube channel, but those aren't for any commercial products.((First upload;second upload.
I'd have to agree with you. A shame, but I suppose that the soba shop is a consistent source of income, where as videogame composition is less so.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spirit_Chaser View Post
I forgot about this thread for a while. I've been doing my own research and investigating lately, mostly of the members of Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. from the 90's. In partucular, the composers that were involved with Brandish 2 plus Satoshi Arai. They would leave one by one until the last remaining member Atsushi Shirakawa left after Vantage Master Japan.

I've been doing my best to track down Atsushi Shirakawa, Mieko Ishikawa, Naoki Kaneda, Takahiro Tsunashima, Masaru Nakajima, Hirofumi Matsuoka and Satoshi Arai. I've gotten a lot of information so far.
That's an incredible amount of information! All very interesting. Sad to hear of Matsuoka passing away, though. I haven't listened to much Falcom stuff (yet) but I am always sad to hear of a good composer passing away.
Reply With Quote
  #75  
Old Jul 6, 2016, 11:33 AM
RBM95's Avatar
RBM95 RBM95 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Spain
Posts: 201
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry93D View Post
From what I can glean, he was shifted from EAD to SPD years ago and mostly does sound support and supervision. Of course, with EAD and SPD merged as EPD, it's possible he may have left or been given the boot.
I don't think Nakatsuka has ever been a part of Nintendo's former EAD division; from what I could gather from various credits, he used to work in several games on the R&D2 division back in the day, which was mainly involved in hardware development (although they also made some games like Ice Climber and Clu Clu Land). Most notably on the Super Famicom era they were mostly behind the Satellaview BS system, and most likely some other projects that don't really have proper staff lists (some others like Yukio Kaneoka and the infamous Yumiko Kanki and Naoto Ishida also seemed to be on that department).

That being said, ever since he has been in SPD he doesn't seem to have ever composed again for any game at all and has being doing mostly sound support and supervision (his credit of "Music" on Brain Age is pretty strange for me tbh). I really have no idea how the sound staff is handled nowadays after the EPD merge, but I don't think there will be any crazy difference from the classical EAD / SPD departments.

Last edited by RBM95; Jul 6, 2016 at 12:04 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #76  
Old Jul 6, 2016, 01:30 PM
GDPR_delete_03 GDPR_delete_03 is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 27
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by RBMNintendoGamer View Post
I don't think Nakatsuka has ever been a part of Nintendo's former EAD division; from what I could gather from various credits, he used to work in several games on the R&D2 division back in the day, which was mainly involved in hardware development (although they also made some games like Ice Climber and Clu Clu Land). Most notably on the Super Famicom era they were mostly behind the Satellaview BS system, and most likely some other projects that don't really have proper staff lists (some others like Yukio Kaneoka and the infamous Yumiko Kanki and Naoto Ishida also seemed to be on that department).

That being said, ever since he has been in SPD he doesn't seem to have ever composed again for any game at all and has being doing mostly sound support and supervision (his credit of "Music" on Brain Age is pretty strange for me tbh). I really have no idea how the sound staff is handled nowadays after the EPD merge, but I don't think there will be any crazy difference from the classical EAD / SPD departments.
Yeah, I briefly forgot they didn't have EAD/SPD divisions back then. xp I'm also fascinated by his credit on Brain Age, but given the legendary obscurity and lack of information on Nintendo composers, I guess it's a mystery.
Reply With Quote
  #77  
Old Feb 4, 2017, 03:02 PM
Doommaster1994's Avatar
Doommaster1994 Doommaster1994 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Seattle
Posts: 41
Default

Nobody seems to have responded about Hiroyuki Masuno. I remember a few years back, I had been extensively looking for who composed Deja Vu, Shadowgate, and Uninvited. I can't remember exactly how I found it, but there it was, Hiroyuki Masuno's Linkedin profile, where he mentioned on it working on the aforementioned games. I sent a request and he accepted. I then confirmed it with him that he did the music for those games. Years later, I was unaware those three games DID have music credits on the back of the box, but only in Japan. They credit "Sound Produce: Kento's Group". I asked Masuno about it, but I never heard back from him. I own a few Kemco Famicom games, but none of them have credits in/on the box/manual. I remember he asked me to add some info about his current works on his page on VGMPF.

I found he wasn't lying because only very few Kemco games at that time had credits. On the NES there was Electrician (Japan/FDS only), Indora no Hikari (Japan only), Space Hunter (Japan only), and Kid Klown. The Japanese version of Superman credits Ryu Hasegawa. Masuno said he had to arrange Ryu's music. Also, M.Takenaka he said was a female composer who later got re-married. However, he doesn't remember her full name. (Funny enough, there's a Jun Ishikawa credited in the Japanese Famicom Superman, but for graphics).

Despite screenshots of it being shown in Nintendo Power, I asked Masuno about the unreleased NES game Ace Harding: Lost in Las Vegas. He said the game was never completed, and I think he said he didn't write music for it as a result.
Reply With Quote
  #78  
Old Jul 4, 2020, 09:48 AM
SerenissimusDux SerenissimusDux is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 54
Default

Bumping this thread in the vain hopes that anyone has any information whatsoever on Masaki Sasaki.

I wouldn't have the words to describe how infinitely cool it would be to see that he's still alive and has been working his musical talents somehow somewhere. Hell, just to know he's alive and contactable would do me!

In so many ways, his music saved me. I'd love to be able to tell him, as unlikely as I know that is.

Last edited by SerenissimusDux; Jul 25, 2020 at 08:48 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #79  
Old Apr 12, 2023, 10:31 AM
asagmo asagmo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2022
Posts: 2
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MEATWART View Post
Alright guys, I just wrote up an email and sent it to my friend who will translate it for me. Let's all hope this email is still valid. I already sent him an email once before but he was no longer using that email.

And with regards to who gave me the email, I'll let you all know (preferably by PM) after (and if) we get all the information from Takenouchi we need, to potentially avoid pissing anyone off. However, it was not a video game composer, but a guy that does freelance work (primarily work in commercials) and also plays in a jazz band. I highly doubt anyone here has heard of him.
I'm supposing we never heard back from Takenouchi? ):
Reply With Quote
  #80  
Old Apr 16, 2023, 12:23 PM
eduhunter's Avatar
eduhunter eduhunter is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: São Paulo - Brazil
Posts: 111
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kewing View Post

Naoto Ishida (F-Zero)
Last known game work: F-Zero (1990)

It's kinda stunning how the composer of one of Nintendo's most iconic songs in its music history just seems to be non-existant. I wonder what other music we would have been graced with if he stayed on the VGM industry.
Naoto Ishida is credited in F-Zero Maxium Velocity (2001), though is it not clear what track he did:



His Facebook isnt updated since 2013. What i found maybe are other persons, like a professor in Tokyo International University of Technology and some coach for a baseball team

29/09/23 EDIT: An interview with Ishida in 2020 https://www.cmicgroup.com/-/C-PRESS/web/01_17.html
__________________
My soundcloud page

Last edited by eduhunter; Sep 29, 2023 at 01:02 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Trying to Change the Name of my Thread Jedi QuestMaster Questions and Comments 2 Nov 18, 2018 05:18 AM
Trade Thread Vert1 Miscellaneous Discussion 0 May 4, 2017 09:02 PM
If you could make any game, which composers/composers/sound team would you choose? Spirit_Chaser Video Game Music Discussion 12 Mar 6, 2014 11:55 AM