Yasuhiro Kawakami

Yasuhiro Kawakami (川上康広, Kawakami Yasuhiro) is a Japanese video game composer and sound programmer who was employed at Square from 1991 to 1999. Before he joined Square, he worked at Sega. Kawakami frequently collaborated with fellow composer Ryuji Sasai.

Biography

Yasuhiro Kawakami joined Sega in 1987, and was promptly given the task to create the music for the original Shinobi. He later went on to do the music to Scramble Spirits, the arcade version of Tetris, and Crack Down. Yasuhiro Kawakami left Sega and joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1991 where he was assigned to compose the 1992 title Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (known as Mystic Quest Legend in Europe) alongside Ryuji Sasai.^[1] Kawakami was responsible for most of the setting themes, while Sasai contributed the rock-based tracks.^[2] In 1996, he collaborated with Sasai again as the sound programmer for Rudra no Hihō; Sasai created the score.^[3]

For the PlayStation game Tobal No. 1 (1996), Kawakami was part of one of the largest number of composers to have ever been featured on a Square soundtrack.^[4] The other composers were Yasunori Mitsuda, Sasai, Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano, Kenji Ito, Noriko Matsueda, and Yoko Shimomura.^[5][6] He created three compositions for the game, and helped to ensure that the console's resources were tested fully before working on the score.^[2] The track "Disused Mine" was included on the score's arranged album, Tobal No. 1 Remixes Electrical Indian.^[7] Kawakami composed the soundtrack to the 1998 title Chocobo's Dungeon 2, alongside Kumi Tanioka, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Itō.^[8] He created about a third of the pieces in the game, handling mostly setting themes. After working on this game, he left Square and became a freelance composer.^[2]

Discography

References