Yasunori Mitsuda

Yasunori Mitsuda is a Japanese musician and composer of video game and soundtrack music. He has been the lead composer for several games in the Xeno series and has contributed to the music of several others. He founded Procyon Studio, a music production studio, and Sleigh Bells, a record company.
==Biography==
Mitsuda was born on the 21st of January, 1972 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan (in the former city of Tokuyama). He began learning classical piano at the age of five but quit a year later.PALGN interview with Yasunori Mitsuda He got into computers in the 4th-5th grade of elementary school due to owning a personal computer (which at the time was rare), with which he experimented with composing electronic music as well as making basic games.Mitsuda's profile on Procyon Studio's website In high school, Mitsuda gained a serious interest in composing soundtrack music after watching movies such as Railman, and decided to enrol in Tokyo's Junior College of Music.
While in the college, Mitsuda got a job as an intern with Wolf Team (now merged into Bandai Namco).2083.jp interview with Yasunori Mitsuda This internship lasted for about a year, during which time Mitsuda worked under Motoi Sakuraba, a composer with whom Mitsuda would work on various projects later in life. After finishing his college course, Mitsuda got a job as composer and sound engineer at Square's sound team in April 1992.
Mitsuda's first substantial piece of composition work at Square was the soundtrack for , which Mitsuda claims is his "landmark" work. At Square he worked with Tetsuya Takahashi to write the music for Xenogears. He also produced arrangement albums of his soundtracks, such as .
Mitsuda left Square in 1998 to become a freelance composer. In 2001 he founded his own music production studio, Procyon Studio, and alongside it a record company, Sleigh Bells. He has worked under this label until the present day, composing music for games in the Xeno series as well as other video games such as , soundtracks such as , and independent projects such as .
==Relevance to the Xeno series==
Mitsuda is one of the leading composers across the Xeno series as a whole, being responsible for a substantial amount of music for many games in the series.
===Xenogears===
* Composer (all tracks)
* Arranger
* Performer (keyboard)
* Music producer
===Xenosaga Episode I===
* Composer (almost all tracks)Mitsuda composed all music for Xenosaga Episode I except for Green Sleeves, a traditional piece.
* Arranger and orchestrator
* Music producer
* Music programming
* Performer (keyboard)
* Synthesiser programming
* ProTools operator
===Xenosaga Episode II===
* Composer () and Song of Nephilim (Xenosaga III ver.) are arrangements of Mitsuda's composition from the music of Xenosaga Episode I.
===Xenosaga Episode III===
* Composer (Song of Nephilim (Xenosaga III ver.))
===Xenoblade Chronicles===
* Composer (Ending Theme - Beyond the Sky, Beyond the Sky (Acoustic Arrange))
===Xenoblade Chronicles 2===
* Composer
** Xenoblade II - Where It All Began -
** Elysium, in the Blue Sky
** Elysium in the Dream
** Where We Used to Be
** The Towering Yggdrasil
** Our Eternal Land
** We Are the Chosen Ones
** Over the Sinful Entreaty
** Ever Come to an End
** Shadow of the Lowlands
** The Decision
** A Faint Hope
** 
** Past From Far Distance
** With People and Darkness
** The Power of Jin
** Praetor Amalthus - The Acting God -
** Orbital Ring
** Our Hope
** Parting
** The Tomorrow With You
** Escape - Going Through Clouds -
** 
** White All Around Us
** One Last You
** New Area
** 
** 
** 
** Peaceful Mind
** 
** Skill in Action
** One Last You (Piano Arrange)
* Arranger (all above tracks except for The Towering Yggdrasil, We Are the Chosen Ones, Shadow of the Lowlands, Yggdrasil, With People and Darkness, Praetor Amalthus - The Acting God -, Orbital Ring, Our Hope, Parting, Elysium, White All Around Us, and One Last You (Piano Arrange))
* Sound Producer (Audio budgeting, musician booking, schedule management, sheet music proofreading)
* Recording coordinator
* Copyist
* Performer (percussion)
===Torna ~ The Golden Country===
* Composer
** The Beginning of Our Memory
** Over Despair and Animus
** Our Paths May Never Cross
** A Moment of Eternity
* Music producer
===Xenoblade Chronicles 3===
* Composer
** 
** Battlefield - The Scramble for Life
** Young Warriors
** Lost Days of Warmth
** Shining Aspiration - Inherited Melody
** Impending Crisis
** The Two Off-Seers
** Suffocating Reverberation
** Ouroboros Awakening
** Against the World
** A Life Woven Together
** A Life Sent On
** The Bereaved and Those Left Behind
** Off-Seer - Noah
** Suspicion
** Sun-Dappled GladeMitsuda is co-credited on this composition by Mariam Abounnasr.
** Blade - Those Who Know Fear
** 
** Encroaching Malice
** 
** Confronting Our Past
** Off-Seer - Mio
** A Life Become Distant
** In the Morning Mist
** Life's Fading Flame - Holding These Thoughts
** Carrying the Weight of LifeMitsuda is co-credited on this composition by Kenji Hiramatsu.
** Mitsuda is co-credited on this composition by Manami Kiyota.
** City/Night
** That To Which The Defeated Cling
** A Step Away
** A Life Overflowing
** 
** Off-Seer - Miyabi
** Feelings Risen to the Sky
** Off-Seer - Crys
** Feelings Upon This Melody
** Origin Ascending
** 
** Noah and N
** Grand Theater of LifeMitsuda is co-credited on this composition by Manami Kiyota as a composer but not an arranger in the JASRAC copyright data, but as an arranger but not a composer on the official website. As these tracks use the Moebius 3 melody composed by Mitsuda, the former is likely to have been intended.
** Z - Harbinger of the End
** The Two Queens of Aionios
** Congregating Lives
** Showdown with Z
** How the Future Endures
** Something's Beginning to Move
** Where We Belong
** Hope for the Future
** Noah and Mio - Our Melody
** At Our Life's End
** Two Worlds and Two Hearts
** Future Awaits
* Arranger
** 
** Shining Aspiration - Inherited Melody
** Ouroboros Awakening
** A Life Woven Together
** A Life Sent On
** The Bereaved and Those Left Behind
** Off-Seer - Noah
** Blade - Those Who Know Fear
** 
** Off-Seer - Mio
** In the Morning Mist
** A Step Away
** A Life Overflowing
** 
** Off-Seer - Miyabi
** Feelings Risen to the Sky
** Off-Seer - Crys
** 
** Noah and N
** Grand Theater of Life
** Z - Harbinger of the End
** Showdown with Z
** Something's Beginning to Move
** Where We Belong
** Noah and Mio - Our Melody
** Future Awaits
===Non-mainline games===
========
* Composer (all tracks)
* Arranger (all tracks)
* Musician (Acoustic piano, keyboards, clapping, vocals)
* Programming
* Lyricist ()
* Producer
* Director
====-MYTH- The Xenogears Orchestral Album====
* Composer (all tracks)
* Arranger and orchestrator
** Cage of Remorse and Relief - Orchestral Version -
** The Beginning and the End - Orchestral Version -
* Sound producer
====Xenogears Original Soundtrack Revival Disc -the first and the last-====
* Composer (all tracks)
* Arranger (almost all tracks)The End of Childhood (Revival Version) and The Beginning and the End (Revival Version) were arranged by Mariam Abounnasr.
* Musician (Keyboard)
* Copyist
====Xenogears 20th Anniversary Concert -The Beginning and the End-====
* Composer (all tracks)
* Arranger
* Musician (Synthesiser, percussion, bouzouki)
* Editing
==Other media==
==Notes==
==Trivia==
* Tetsuya Takahashi nicknames Mitsuda "Mitchan".Xenoblade Chronicles Original Soundtrack Trinity Box booklet, page 40
==Gallery==
Kiyota mitsuda xc3 recording.jpg|Mitsuda (right) recording for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 with Manami Kiyota.
==External links==
* Wikipedia page
* IMDB page
* VGMdb page
* Twitter
* XCDE promotional crossfade video highlighting Mitsuda's compositions
* XC2 promotional crossfade video highlighting Mitsuda's compositions
* XC3 promotional crossfade video highlighting Mitsuda's compositions
===Interviews===
* Procyon Studio interview archive
==References==
Category:People