Motoi Sakuraba

Written in 2005

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He is one of the most unique RPG musicians. Once he's not limited by any regulations of game companys, his soundtracks are progressive, upbeat and overloaded. He started his career as a member of a rock group called Deja-Vu which released an album in 1988.

Just one year later, 1989, he started working for WOLF team, his first work was the background music for some shooter games. Since then, he teamed up with many game companies such as Camelot, tri-ace (Square Enix), Monolith Software and Namco Tales Studio (Namco).

In the past years, Motoi Sakuraba held two concerts, of which one of them was a Valkyrie Profile Arranged concert. Once you've seen this, you know HOW he can create his very own music. Surrounded by countless Keyboards, he plays them almost alone in a style which fits "possessed" most probably.

A extreme person with extreme music. It's no wonder that sometimes this just won't work out. In the mid-to-late-nineties, some of his soundtracks were very strange created with little inspiration and many extremes. But you have to take into consideration that Motoi Sakurabas music style is self-taught, so these works are just a step into the modern ages where wonderful soundtracks came out of his lab.

Nowadays, Mr. Sakuraba gained quite some variety and especially his newer Soundtracks for Namco Tales Studio and Tri Ace are outstanding. You might not love his music on first hear, but it's definitely worth a second try.

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