Kiyoshi Murai
Kiyoshi Murai
Artist Information
- Name: Kiyoshi Murai (村井潔)
- Birthdate: February 1st, 1965
- Birthplace: Kanagawa, Japan
- Likes: Curry, synths
- Favorite band: Yellow Magic Orchestra
- X: https://x.com/mu_station
- Website: http://mu-station.chillout.jp/index.html
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/seiya-murai
Profile
Prior to joining KONAMI in the early 1990s, Kiyoshi Murai studied graphic design at an arts university, worked in the music industry, and studied abroad in the United States. He started composing music for various SEGA Mega Drive video games, Tokimeki Memorial Vocal CDs, and the 1998 PlayStation game Mitsumete Knight. In BEMANI, Kiyoshi joined the pop'n music team from pop'n music 4, while his first BEMANI song, WE TWO ARE ONE, appeared in pop'n stage ex in 1999. He has appeared in every pop'n music arcade installment since 4. His musical style incorporates a 1980s synth sound (through his V.C.O. and ALT songs), although he has also composed rock and orchestral music.
Kiyoshi was the head sound director of pop'n music 4 and 5, and continued to sound direct various pop'n entries until 16 PARTY♪. He was also the co-director of KEYBOARDMANIA 2ndMIX with Hiroki Koga, and became the head sound director of KEYBOARDMANIA 3rdMIX. Kiyoshi was the sound producer of the ミライダガッキ FutureTomTom series, and produced music for KONAMI's arcade game Otoca♥d'or (オトカ♥ドール) in 2015.
Sometime around late 2017, Kiyoshi was transferred from Konami Amusement to the Konami Digital Entertainment department, but eventually returned to Konami Amusement in early 2019.
Trivia
- Prior to his full name being revealed in 2019 [1], Kiyoshi previously stated in an interview with the Japanese website Gpara.com that his commonly used "Seiya" alias wasn't his real first name.
- Kiyoshi started playing the piano when he was 5 years old [2].
- Kiyoshi created the rearranged pop'n music title screen theme in pop'n music 4 and 5, and the new intro themes from pop'n music 9 through 12 いろは.
- Kiyoshi's V.C.O. alias is an abbreviation for "Voltage Controlled Orchestra".
- This alias is most likely a reference to Murai's favorite band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, which is often abbreviated as YMO.
- According to the Q&A corner of pop'n music 9's official website (archived), Kiyoshi notes that the Kiyommy+Seiya alias was decided after he secretly added +Seiya at the end, which was originally planned to just be named Kiyommy.
- He also mentions that his natural bear alias was named by Katsuhiko Suzuki after he asked Kiyoshi, "is natural bear OK?" (ナチュラルベアでいいじゃん？).
- KONAMI composers Michiru Yamane and Miki Higashino were Kiyoshi's seniors in the same department when he joined KONAMI.
- According to A SHOOTING STAR's song comments, one of Kiyoshi's first sound specific jobs at KONAMI was making new sound effects for the PC Engine Super CD ports of some KONAMI games, like GRADIUS II.
- One of Kiyoshi's tracks from Mitsumete Knight was later arranged in pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE as THE MAN FROM FAR EAST.
- Similarly, an arrangement of his song 掌の革命 from Tokimeki Memorial Best Vocal Collection 2 also appeared in pop'n music 9.
- According to Kiyoshi's staff comments for Flow in pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE's official website (archived), he was introduced to the pop'n music series when Yuichi Asami allowed him to play pop'n music CS while he was game testing it.
- Kiyoshi is the first in-house BEMANI artist to use VOCALOID software in a song. He used Prima in 鉄甲乙女 -under the steel- in beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS.
- Kiyoshi appears in the 2020 Tsugumi Kataoka-produced album Casiotunes!: CUTE and POP MUSIC by CASIONTONE LOVERS under his mu-station alias. It marks his first appearance in a non-KONAMI album.
- According to Kiyoshi, he appeared in the album from Kataoka's request [3].
Aliases
- Seiya Murai (村井聖夜) / Seiya / seiya-murai
- Five Hammer
- FIVE STICKS
- Millenium Project
- moonlit
- mu-Ray
- Popper Head
- private states
- SOUNDROID
- Theme from"TOON MANIA"
- V.C.O.
- WORLD SEQUENCE / world sequence
- YASHI♪GANI
- エレハモニカ
- 黒踊社中
- まろりんズ
- Kiyommy+Seiya (with Kiyomi Kumano)
- natural bear (with Kiyomi Kumano)
- PARSEC / parsec (with misaki)
- T&S seq. factory / 板橋ギャング (with dj TAKA)
- 秋桜 (composer for)
- サドルシューズ (with Megumi Oka, GUHROOHY, and NO+CHIN)
- ネオロマンティックス (with Norikazu Miura)
- るるるSYSTEM (with Misaki Arima and e-co)
BEMANI Songs
Discography
Albums
- pop'n music Artist Collection natural bear & Kiyommy + Seiya (2002, with Kiyomi Kumano)
- cosmos (2007, with Sayaka Minami and Emi Toujou)
- plug+program (2008)
- 0/1 ANGEL (2011, with ALT)