Yoshitaka Hirota

born 1 September, 1971 in Kyoto, Japan is a Japanese video game music composer and Bass Guitarist. His most notable works include the soundtracks to the Shadow Hearts series of video games (Shadow Hearts, and ) for the Sony Playstation 2. Hirota's Shadow Hearts music is notable for its fusion of cultural music with Hirota's personal Industrial style.

Hirota was previously a sound effects programmer having worked on various Squaresoft titles. His first work as a video game composer was for the Nintendo 64 game .

Frequent collaborators

Hirota has a friendship from childhood with fellow composer Yasunori Mitsuda who he has worked with on , Biohazard 2 Drama Albums, Shadow Hearts and .

Kyoko Kishikawa has worked with Hirota on Shadow Hearts, (although not ) and Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange, providing eerie female scat vocals for a number of his tracks. Also, Hirota frequently performs bass guitar with Kishikawa's band darumaya. [http://www.rpgfan.com/features/darumaya-interview/index.html]

Ryo Fukuda has been the sound manipulator for Hirota on the Shadow Hearts games as well as composing and arranging a few tracks for all three games. He also co-composed with Hirota on Sonic Shuffle.

Kenji Ito worked with Hirota on the soundtrack of . Hirota has performed bass guitar for Ito's live performance of Culdcept music during the Extra Live Concert [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/concerts/extra.shtml] and for Ito's vocal song for Lux-Pain [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/albums/l/luxpain.shtml] , "Seinaru Itami wo Daite" sung by Yoko Takahashi.

Instruments

Although Hirota is primarily a bass guitarist, he is capable of playing a variety of other instruments [http://deepincoma.ffdream.com/?cat=yoshitaka_hirota&rub=instruments] :-

- Biwa
- Syami
- Alter Ego Figaro
- Saw Wo
- Son
- Khene
- Old Drum
- Madaru
- Gong
- Suzu
- Karimba

ound designer credits

*Final Fantasy VI (1994)
*Live A Live (1994)
*Chrono Trigger (1995)
*Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995)
* (1996)
*Bahamut Lagoon (1996)
*Super Mario RPG (1996)
*Final Fantasy VII (1997)
*Front Mission 2 (1997)
*Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon (1997)
*Parasite Eve (1998)
*Racing Lagoon (1999)
*Chrono Cross (1999)
*Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
*Koudelka (1999)

Video game music composer credits

* (1999) with Yasunori Mitsuda
*Faselei! (1999)
* (2000)
* (2000)
*Sonic Shuffle (2000) with Hidenobu Otsuki, Ryo Fukuda, Takeo Suzuki and Kazumi Mitome.
*Shadow Hearts (2001) with Yasunori Mitsuda, Masaharu Iwata and Ryo Fukuda
* (2004) with Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Ito, Ryo Fukuda and Tomoko Kobayashi
* (2005) with Tomoko Imoto, Ryo Fukuda and Hirotomi Imoto
* (2007)
*Hana Saku DS Gardening Life (2007)
*DK Jungle Climber (2007) (Composer of 5 tracks)
*Yoga Tipness (2007)
* (Nintendo DS) (2008) Composer of 25 Tracks
*D.Gray-Man Sousya no Shigaku (Playstation 2) (2008)

Other works

* Talk While Asleep (1995) Co-remixer with Fumiya Tanaka
* We are not alone ~Mou Hitori Ja Nai~ (1998) Co-composer with Kazumi Mitome
*Biohazard 2 Drama Album: Chiisana Toubousha Sherry (1999) Co-Composer with Yasunori Mitsuda
*Biohazard 2 Drama Album: Ikiteita Onna Spy Ada (1999) Co-Composer with Yasunori Mitsuda
*Street Fighter Zero 3 Drama Album (1999) Co-Composer with Yasunori Mitsuda
* near death experience, SHADOW HEARTS Arrangetracks (2005) Arranger of 5 Tracks
*Angelic Vale Arrange Tracks (2005) Arranger of 2 Tracks
*Tsuki no Uta (2005) (Debut Single of Saki Imozuki) Arranger of all tracks
*Yoruoto Hyouhon (2005) (Debut Album of Noriko Mitose) Composer and arranger of 1 Track
*Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange (2006) Arranger of 1 Track
*Kinema in the Hole (Rekka Katakiri Album) (2007) Composer and arranger of all tracks
*Cotton (2007) (Noriko Mitose Album) Arranger of 1 Track
*Hareyaka naru Sora no Yukue (2007) (Rekka Katakiri Album) Composer and arranger of 1 Track
*Struldbruggs ~Majin Kaikou~ (2007) Co-Composer
*Istoria ~Musa~ (Akiko Shikata album) (2007) Composer and Arranger of 1 Track
*Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Akiko Shikata Single) (2008) Arranger of 1 Track

References

External links

* [http://www.twintail-studio.com/ Twin Tail Studio] (Official Website)
* [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/hirota/ Comprehensive Yoshitaka Hirota Profile at Square Enix Music Online]
* [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/hirota/nov05interview.shtml Interview at Square Enix Music Online]
* [http://www.gogamemusic.com/interviews_yoshitaka_hirota_sh2.shtml Interview at Go! Game! Music!]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060514154854/http://rocketbaby.net/interviews_yoshitaka_hirota_sh.html Archived Interview at RocketBaby]