Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
Artist Information
- Name: Akira Yamaoka (山岡晃)
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AkiraYamaoka
- Born: February 6, 1968 in Niigata, Japan
Profile
For 15 years, Akira Yamaoka was one of the biggest composers at KONAMI. Getting his start with the company as an additional composer on KONAMI games such as Sparkster in 1994, Akira really broke out when he became the music composer for the 1999 PlayStation game Silent Hill, which received accolade at the time for its gameplay, and especially its soundtrack. Akira continued to compose for all later games in the franchise, becoming so synonymous with the franchise that he even became its producer in later years. He continued to compose for the series up to the 2009 game Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which was released right before his departure from KONAMI. Akira also worked on the soundtracks to SHIN Contra, the third game in the Winning Eleven series, the RUMBLE ROSES series and OTOMEDIUS G.
In BEMANI Akira was best known for his work in the beatmania IIDX series, his music style ranging everywhere from techno, industrial, trance, minimal, rave, and even J-POP. He even released an album of mostly BEMANI material, iFUTURELIST in 2006. Akira was also for years active in pop'n music, and even contributed a bit to DanceDanceRevolution.
In December 2009 Akira Yamaoka left KONAMI. He currently works for Japanese video game company Grasshopper Manufacture, where he continues doing video game soundtracks to this day.
Trivia
- From his debut in beatmania IIDX until his departure from KONAMI, beatmania IIDX 6th style was the only beatmania IIDX arcade game that Akira Yamaoka did not provide a new song for.
- According to dj TAKA himself in the beatmania IIDX 6th style official website's Q&A, Akira's absence was due to him being very busy on the soundtrack to Silent Hill 2. (Silent Hill 2 was actually released in Japan just a single day before 6th style's arcade release.)
- Akira Yamaoka did a remix for one of J-POP group M.O.V.E.'s songs, FREAKY PLANET. Titled FREAKY PLANET (rosy mix remixed by AKIRA YAMAOKA), it appears on their GRID album, which was released January 2006.
- Akira's music from Silent Hill 2 was performed live in 2005 at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany.
- Akira's music reflects that of industrial music.
- Akira also performed music from Silent Hill at the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony on May 27th, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, and accompanied the orchestra with an electric guitar.
- Akira frequently collaborates with singer Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.
- According to Akira, he choose the nickname for the vocalist riewo/ric, but he would have preferred to use the vocalist's real name.
- Akira Yamaoka appeared in SEGA's CHUNITHM series with the song 札付きのワル ～マイケルのうた～, composed alongside Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, and with 足立オウフwwww.
- Akira composed music for the upcoming CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS anime series.
Aliases
- DETROIAN
- DE VOL
- "AQUI LA JAMAOKA"
- 新谷あきら (member of, with Sana)
- ガキ大将ティーム (collaboration with DJ Yoshitaka)
- 中央値算出チーム (with riewo)
- 秋山巴美とパパドンドン
BEMANI Songs
Discography
Albums
- iFUTURELIST (2006)