Taku Sakakibara
Taku Sakakibara
Artist Information
- Name: Taku Sakakibara (榊原琢)
- Full name: Taku Isaac Sakakibara
- Birthdate: August 5th, 1975
- Birthplace: Maryland, USA
- Website: http://www.ongaq.com/
- X: https://x.com/taq_ongaq
Profile
Taku Sakakibara is one of the biggest names in beatmania IIDX despite his long absence from the series. Friends with both dj TAKA and Osamu Kubota, his music is known for its full sound and more complex rhythms compared to some other beatmania IIDX artists. He stopped composing for beatmania IIDX in 2004 shortly after 10th style to focus on other musical endeavors outside of video game music, some of which are available to listen to on his website listed above. He did, however, provide two pop'n music songs with German lyrics after his departure.
Outside of BEMANI, Taku has provided music for the Korean MMO Granado Espada Rennaisance together with Osamu Kubota. Taku has done arrangements for the KINGDOM HEARTS series as well. He is also the owner of the ongaq studio, a recording studio used by onoken among other artists. At the ongaq studio in 2011, he launched gaQdan, a studio recording orchestra business group.
Trivia
- Born in the United States and raised in West Germany, TaQ is notable for being fluent in German, as shown with his singing in Distress in German, as well as his lyrics for various pop'n music songs in German.
- TaQ is pronounced "TAH-ku", deriving from the German pronunciation of the letter Q.
- TaQ and dj TAKA have been friends since middle school.
- TaQ remixed ALOIVIA and Compression Space (the latter with onoken and Atomic) for the ZONE OF THE ENDERS ReMIX EDITION album, and was also arranger for the BEMANI SYMPHONY ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK album.
- TaQ was rumored to be in pop'n music Sunny Park, as his ongaq website notes "pop'n music 21" on the list of music he's worked on. However, no known song of his appears in the final version of the game.
- TaQ appeared on Diverse System's RADIAL album with the track RADIAL.
Aliases
- TaQ
- OutPhase (with Takayuki Ishikawa)
- DesQ (with Osamu Migitera)
BEMANI Songs
Discography
Albums
- bounce connected (2003)
- ongaq:stromatolite (2004)
- visible:stromatolite (DVD, 2004)