Best Japanese Composer

I love the soundtrack to Samurai Champloo. I think the composer is some Japanese hip-hop dude named Fat John. It's really good to listen to when you're reading or studying. :victory:

I'm no expert when it comes to japanese composers but my favourite is probably Ryuichi Sakamoto. Especially his soundtrack for a movie called Gohatto really hit me. It was hypnotic, threatening and beautiful all at the same time, and you really can't imagine the movie without it.

The soundtracks for Samurai Champloo are absolutely great! It's by a bunch of hip-hop guys; namely Force of Nature, Nujabes, and Fat Jon. Imagine soft melodies with smooth hip-hop-style beats on top of it without the annoying lyrics. Now that I think about it, it pretty much sounds like what Sakamoto Ryuichi would compose.

hell yeh, how can i forget.. i love his work & collected all his discographies :mrgreen: Nujabes is one of the legends, and has worked with various artists most likely in the hiphop scene.

it pretty much sounds like what Sakamoto Ryuichi would compose.

yeh but not really, ryuichi has his own style like trance, urban, new age, and folk songs. i cant imagine Nujabes doing trance :sweat:

i also like to mention Taku Takashi (m-flo), more like a producer though, doing beats like 2step/uk garage, electronic, and hiphop.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is the one name that jumps out for me because he composed the tracks for the Last emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawerence which was later remixed into a techno trance track. However his original pieces are good enough on their own.

To me, there are some great composers/producers from the pop arena:

Tak Matsumoto (from B'z . . . doesn't Koshi Inaba assist in some of the songwriting, too? He brings a mathematic aspect to the table, I suppose, bwhahah.)

Oda Kazumasa (do I really need to list the king of J-dorama pop tunes' accomplishments?)

And, yes, I'll agree with Eltinator (and for the benefit of us Morning Musume fans) in that TSUNKU DOES count! After all, if it weren't for him, MM would just be dancing to drum beats, eh? And T.K. counts too -- I think he did the obligatory action sequence score for the film Speed 2, I kid you not! Also, do you like a lot of Amuro Namie tunes? Well, thank T.K. for that, too! Besides . . . T.K. deserves automatic "composer" by simply wearing a cape on a regular basis if you ask me. :bow:

i very enjoy the music compose by Akira Senju. i like the music for the Japanese dorama Suna No Utsuwa, so good, i buy it.

do anybody know anymore Japanese TV dorama soundtrack CDs that have Akira Senju compose music for?

Tsuyoshi-kun's Yomigaeri movie original soundtrack was also composed by Akira Senju!^^ I have both Yomigaeri and Suna soundtracks!^_^

you're right! Akira Senju is really a great composer! i really love his SHUKUMEI piece! sugoi nee.....

I really love both Yomigaeri movie and Suna dorama^^ but as for the soundtrack, I love Yomigaeri's slightly better!!^___^ more various of tunes...heehee....
In Suna, few tracks have the same tunes with SHUKUMEI deshou? x)

yanie_chan wrote:
you're right! Akira Senju is really a great composer! i really love his SHUKUMEI piece! sugoi nee.....

In Suna, few tracks have the same tunes with SHUKUMEI deshou? x)

I agree. I was really moved and felt very emotional when I heard Shukumei. I have watched "Suna No Utsuwa" starring Nakai Masahiro and it was such a good tv series, it is no wonder it won awards.

Akira Senju is a music genius.

I have never heard the soundtrack to Tsuyoshi's movie "Yomigaeri". Just curious, is the music scary?

I don't think is the right section for this thread. :sweat:

Yeah, there's already a thread here:

http://jdorama.com/viewtopic.6047.htm

Topic merged.

He is the GOD of soundtracks! :bow:

ptasiek wrote:
Every asian composer count :mrgreen:
so if You know any that not on the list just post :mrgreen:
becouse I serch good music from asian composers. I like they specific music.

I have quite a number of OSTs which I love, and I think all of the composers are really really good.. people like Knife, Sin, Remedios, Akira Senju, Hajime Mizugochi, Ryo Yoshimata, ... the list is endless.
But my absolute fave happens to be Korean... He's Yiruma. I love his compositions very very much.

MixxDreamer wrote: except im missing the howling castle & cat's return soundtrack ..do u have them by any chance?

I have then in mp3 format

Keiichi Suzuki is realy great composer witch his unique style. Just listen Uzumaki OST or Zatoichi OST. Electro fans probably knows him from Satellite Serenade. SS was great track and was remikxed by many artist like Orb or Simon Posford (every fan of trance know him. I was a fan of psy trance 7 years ago :mrgreen: )

When it comes to drama soundtrack composers, the only group comes to my mind is definitely S.E.N.S! The group consist of two composers, Akihiko Fukaura and Yukari Katsuki. The music they produce is very powerful yet very emotional and forgot to mention soft and gentle feeling. Works very well as healing music from the stress and hardships. Ironically S.E.N.S stands for Sound Earth Nature Spirit, hehe. They have produced music for dramas such as L'oiseau Bleu, Maria, Kamisama, Asunaro Hakusho, Love 2000 etc. I love how they implement synthesizer and piano in the music!!! I was lucky to find out the oversea compilation album posted on the internet. Thanks to it feel more attached to music produced by SENS.

Another excellent composer is Kenji Kawai! He's produced music for Ghost in the Shell 1-2, Ringu movies, Chaos, Dark water. He's the master of making ambient music! Can't go wrong with Dark Water and Ring "music", hehe. His music has managed to make me shed tears, it was when I watching Maison Ikkoku and there were very moving scenes and the the powerful music played at the same and suddently tears started to flow from eyes. The first I shed tears in watchin movies/series, I was happy and relieved about it. I'll never forget that day and the experience I had back then.

Must not forget the other composers mentioned above. After experiencing Last Emperor soundtrack I felt the urge to watch the movie again. The last time I watched when I was a little kid.

Howl's Moving Castle soundtrack actually didn't leave any memorable tracks, I kinda felt disappointed. That doesn't mean Joe Hisaishi is a bad composer or something.

my favourite Japanese composer has to be Ryuichi Sakamoto! he's the reason why i picked up Japanese in my university years. He wrote the soundtrack to the film "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" which was based on "The Seed and the Sower" by Laurens van der Post. I've first heard the theme song to that show as a techno track from my classmate, and that led me on my search for the original version which was MUCH better. I'm still moved whenever i heard it now.

i like yoko kanno as well especially one of her tracks "pulse"

Nobuo Uematsu is also another one of my favourites but to be fair i only knew of him through the soundtrack to final fantasy 9. i haven't heard much of anything else he's done

In addition to SENS, this is prolly the first time I feel buying music is worth bang for the bucks! Don't get me wrong, I have purchased music before the p2p era. What I'm saying is after listenin to the music by SENS, I just have the feeling buying their music is absolutely worth it! I have bought and of course leeched jpops before, but the feeling of worth purchasing never crossed my mind. After listenin SENS music back and forth, the issue crossed my mind. :woot: The first time I felt like this, must have had something to do with the music of theirs! Gotta write down on my shoppin memo when I travel to Japan next time.

mochi wrote:i like yoko kanno as well especially one of her tracks "pulse"

Gotta check that out. The only soundtracks I recall from her is Ghost in the shell tv series. They are "cool" whereas the movies are very atmospheric and haunting!

Pemu wrote:In addition to SENS, this is prolly the first time I feel buying music is worth bang for the bucks! Don't get me wrong, I have purchased music before the p2p era. What I'm saying is after listenin to the music by SENS, I just have the feeling buying their music is absolutely worth it! I have bought and of course leeched jpops before, but the feeling of worth purchasing never crossed my mind. After listenin SENS music back and forth, the issue crossed my mind. :woot: The first time I felt like this, must have had something to do with the music of theirs! Gotta write down on my shoppin memo when I travel to Japan next time.

I'm only listen SENS in Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake OST and it was really something. l must find some other their works.

ptasiek wrote:

I'm only listen SENS in Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake OST and it was really something. l must find some other their works.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND! I'm not jokin. My friend sent me 10 SENS albums :woot: *lucky* I felt so happy for a moment, haven't felt anxious for a while. Now very relieved after listenin to the music, enjoyed every album! One of the best composer around in my honest opinion. For those who aren't familiar with SENS, Renaishu is an appropriate album to pick up SENS music. A great starter! The songs are drama soundtracks ;) http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=BVCR-14017

Maybe I should start a SENS thread in the artiste section :dancing: