Masashi Hamauzu

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Masashi Hamauzu (浜渦正志; Hamauzu Masashi, born September 20, 1971 in Munich, Germany) is a video game music composer who has worked for Square Enix for more than a decade.

Hamauzu's start with the company came by creating a small handful of tracks (along with other composers) for Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996) and Tobal No. 1 (1996). Later collaborations would include Final Fantasy X (2001) (with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano) and Musashi: Samurai Legend (2005) (with Junya Nakano, and Takayuki Iwai & Yuki Iwai of Wavelink Zeal).

His solo works include Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon (1997), SaGa Frontier 2 (1999), Unlimited SaGa (2002), and Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- (2006). And in a surprise announcement from the 2006 E3 show, it was revealed that Hamauzu would be returning to the Final Fantasy series, scoring Final Fantasy XIII (Nobuo Uematsu will provide the opening theme).

Hamauzu has also produced arranged albums for a few of his works, including Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon ~Coi Vanni Gialli~ and Piano Pieces "SF2" Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2. He also prepared the piano arrangements for Final Fantasy X Piano Collections and Yasunori Mitsuda's Sailing to the World Piano Score.

Hamauzu's works are often reminiscent of Chopin, Ravel, and Debussy compositions, resembling classical and ambient music. His music frequently incorporates deliberate dissonance to provide an artistic and mood-setting effect. After pattern and harmony have set in, the unique elegance of the dissonance becomes apparent; the listener's perception of dissonance now evolves into a perception of consonance integral to the music.

Even still, Hamauzu composes music in many different styles, often using multiple styles throughout the various pieces of a soundtrack. This can be easily noticed in the soundtrack to UNLIMITED SaGa. Here, Hamauzu's compositions break barriers between musical genres, mixing classical marches, tango music, electronic ambience, instrumental solos, and jazz.

From SaGa Frontier 2 onward, Hamauzu has primarily worked closely with synthesizer operator Ryo Yamazaki.

[edit] Works

[edit] Discography

  • Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard Original Sound Version (1996)
  • Tobal No.1 Original Sound Track (1996)
  • Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Original Soundtrack (1997)
  • Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon COI VANNI GIALLI (1998)
  • SaGa Frontier II Original Soundtrack (1999)
  • Piano Pieces "SF2" Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2 (1999)
  • Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack (2001)
  • feel/Go Dream - Yuna & Tidus (2001)
  • Piano Collections Final Fantasy X (2002)
  • Unlimited: SaGa Original Soundtrack (2003)
  • Musashiden II Blademaster Original Soundtrack (2005)
  • Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- Original Soundtrack (2006)
  • Sailing to the World Piano Score (arrangement only; original music by Yasunori Mitsuda) (2006)
  • Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII - MULTIPLAYER MODE Original Sound Collections (available online only from iTunes) (2006)
  • VIELEN DANK -Masashi Hamauzu- (2007)

[edit] External links