Profile of Masashi Hamauzu on Famous Like Me

Masashi Hamauzu (濱渦正志; Hamauzu Masashi, born September 20, 1971 in Munich, Germany, is a composer who creates video game music, and has worked for Square Enix for nearly a decade.

His works include Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (1997), SaGa Frontier 2 (1999), and UNLIMITED SaGa (2003). He has also collaborated on the soundtracks to Final Fantasy X (2001) (with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano) and Musashi: Samurai Legend (2005) (with Junya Nakano, and Takayuki Iwai & Yuki Iwai of Wavelink Zeal). However, his start with the company came by creating a small handful of tracks (amidst other composers) for Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996) and Tobal No. 1 (1996). Hamauzu's next project as composer is for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2005).

Hamauzu has also produced arranged albums for a few of his works, including Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon ~Coi Vanni Gialli~ and Piano Pieces "SF2" Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2. He also prepared the piano arrangements for Final Fantasy X Piano Collections.

Hamauzu's works are generally reminiscent of Chopin and Debussy compositions, resembling classical and ambient music. His music frequently incorporates deliberate dissonance to provide an artistic and mood-setting effect. After pattern and harmony have set in, the unique elegance of the dissonance becomes apparent; the listener's perception of dissonance now evolves into a perception of consonance integral to the music.

Even still, Hamauzu creates music in many different styles, as is most easily noticed in the soundtrack to UNLIMITED SaGa. Here, Hamauzu's compositions break barriers between musical genres.

Works

• Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996): composer
• Tobal No.1 (1996): composer
• Final Fantasy VII (1997): chorus
• Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon (1997): composer
• SaGa Frontier 2 (1999): composer
• Final Fantasy X (2001): composer, arranger
• Unlimited SaGa (2002): composer
• Musashi: Samurai Legend (2005): composer
• Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- (2005): composer

Discography

• Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard Original Sound Version (1996)
• Tobal No.1 Original Sound Track (1996)
• Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Original Soundtrack (1997)
• Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon COI VANNI GIALLI (1998)
• SaGa Frontier II Original Soundtrack (1999)
• Piano Pieces "SF2" Rhapsody on a Theme of SaGa Frontier 2 (1999)
• Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack (2001)
• Piano Collections Final Fantasy X (2002)
• Unlimited: SaGa Original Soundtrack (2003)
• Musashiden II Blademaster Original Soundtrack (2005)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Masashi Hamauzu