Kentarou Haneda
 

Does anyone familiar with Kentaro Haneda? He's one of most favorite composer all the time beside Sugiyama and Kondo. He's the man responsible for mediaval music behind Wizardry Series when ASCII brought the game into Japan over NES, SNES and Gameboy. Apart from the game is ridiculously hard, the music does match my taste. AFAIK, since 3x3 Eyes, he hasnt done much composing for VGM and Anime music, the latest VGM he wrote was Wizardry II ~Llylgamyn Saga~ OST [COCX-30242] which doesnt sound like he was used to be, his music just felt so Jpop-ish, and I must say I would prefer his older works if all of his music now felt like that album.

It seems he is more popular as concert monster rather than composer in japan. I have yet to see if he has plan to be involved in VGM project in future.

His style much like combination of Yoko Kanno and Sugiyama. He is skilled composer and able to write beautiful melodies ranged from Jazz, Classical and Baroque.


Haneda was responsible for five installment of this series which are:

Wizardry I ~Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord~
Wizardry II ~Legacy of Llylgamyn~
Wizardry III ~Knights of Diamonds~
Wizardry V ~Heart of Maelstorm~
Wizardry VI ~ Bane of the Cosmic Forge~


so far there are five arrangement based on his music of original music on the cartidges, which are:
Suite Wizardry I ~We Love Wizardry~ [BY30-5179]
Suite Wizardry II ~Legacy of Llylgamyn~ [BY30-5209]
Suite Wizardry III ~Knight of Diamonds~ [APCG-4003]
Suite Wizardry V ~Heart of Maelstorm~ [APCG-4031]
Suite Wizardry VI ~ Bane of the Cosmic Forge~ [TKCA-70601]

interestingly he also wrote wonderful score for some anime series which are:
Macross
3x3 Eyes
Onisama e

I really looking forward if there are other Haneken fans here.http://squareenixmusic.com/forum/ima...ies/smile1.gif
http://www.haneken.com/image/main_top_arts.jpg


Recommended Album to listen
The Super Dimensional Fortress MACROSS do you remember love musical suite
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0au2i7

The Super Dimensional Fortress MACROSS Iijima Mari SONG MEMORY ~MINMEI SINGS FOR YOU~
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fvlgm0

La Califa, track from New Age Album
http://cafe.joins.com/cafefile/n/e/n...a%20Califa.wma

Source:
http://www.haneken.com/ (jp)
http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/haneken_cd/ (jp)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentarou_Haneda (still new)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...le.php?id=4126

VGM Doujin Link
Adventurer Inn
http://www105.sakura.ne.jp/~mitsu/inn/adinn.htm (jp)

Request Thread in GFF
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/au...scography.html

Tomorrow there will be a concert in Malmö, Sweden which will feature a piece from Wizardry! I don't know much about Kentaro, except that he has arranged a Suikoden album.

I'm not too familiar with his original work. All I've actually heard from him are the two symphonic albums he arranged for Falcom, Symphony Ys and Symphony Sorcerian.

Wow, is there any chance of recording that concert?:)

Oh well, I understand how unpopular he is, even in GFF. Slim chance I will see another fan of him here in this board.

Well, I'm a fan of his work in the Wizardry series. Other than the Symphony Ys and Sorcerian albums that WarpStar mentioned, that's about all I've heard from him. I know he's done way more stuff than that but I've just never went out and looked around for it. But yeah, I do enjoy his work. He's accomplished and he's been around for a long time. He's right there with guys like Uematsu and Sugiyama as far as longevity and contributions to game music go.

Thanks for posting those links. I really enjoyed the Wizardry stuff. I haven't got around to listening to the anime stuff, but there are a few tracks that I liked from Macross, so I'm hopeful.

I always dismissed Wizardry music, but I never knew why. It's excellent stuff.