is a Japanese music

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

orchestrator Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

who primarily does work in

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

. He has worked on titles such as ''

Front Mission 3 ''Front Mission 3'', also known in Japan as is a tactical role-playing game for the PlayStation developed by and published by Square Co., Ltd., released in Japan in 1999, and North America and Europe in 2000. ''Front Mission 3'' is the third ma ...

'', ''

Final Fantasy XII is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The twelfth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open wo ...

'', the ''

Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...

'' series, ''

Magic Knight Rayearth is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp. Appearing as a serial in the manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from the November 1993 issue to the February 1995 issue, the chapters of ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' were collected into three bound volum ...

'', and ''

Hellsing Ultimate ''Hellsing'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. It was serialized in Shōnen Gahōsha's ''seinen'' manga magazine '' Young King OURs'' from May 1997 to September 2008, with its cha ...

''. Inspired by his mother, a piano teacher, he graduated from the music composition department of

Tokyo University of the Arts or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...

. While in college, he composed for the band G-Clef, and occasionally stood in for members. Upon graduating in 1991, he went to work under

Koichi Sugiyama was a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing the music for the '' Dragon Quest'' franchise, along with several other video games, anime, film, and television shows. Classically trained, Sugiyama was ...

, composer for the ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' series, where he arranged his tracks for the 1991 anime '' Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai''. Around the same time Matsuo began to compose original game music, his first being for ''

Master of Monsters ''Master of Monsters'' is a turn-based strategy game developed by SystemSoft for the MSX and NEC PC8801. It was ported to a variety of consoles and PCs including the PC Engine CD, NEC PC9801, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. While it never had ...

''. Over the next few years, he worked on several games and anime series. In 1995, he joined the independent music composition group Imagine. He has continued since then to compose and orchestrate works for several game, anime, and television series, as well as a few pieces for original albums.

Biography

Early life

Matsuo's mother was a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

electone Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design of the Electric organ#Spinet organs (1949–), spinet electro ...

teacher, and she inspired him to enjoy classical music. She also organized concerts for local children to compose and perform music in, which he took part in. While in school, he was inspired by

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...

and

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

. He eventually attended

, where he focused on classical music. While in school, however, he also was involved in more popular music, and was involved with the progressive rock band G-Clef, filling in sometimes for members of the band, many of whom he was friends with. He also provided some music for the band. When he was near graduation, Matsuo was introduced to

, the composer for the ''

'' franchise. Upon graduating, he went to work with Sugiyama.

Career

Matsuo began his career arranging Sugiyama's pieces for '' Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai'' in 1991. His first work as a also came in 1991, with the video game ''

''. His first notable work came in 1993 with '' Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen'', which he worked on with

Hitoshi Sakimoto is a Japanese video game music composer and arranger. He is best known for scoring ''Final Fantasy Tactics'' and ''Final Fantasy XII'', though he has composed soundtracks for over 80 other games. He began playing music and video games in elementa ...

and

Masaharu Iwata is a Japanese video game music, video game composer. After graduating from high school, where his musical projects included composing on a synthesizer and playing in a cover band, he joined Bothtec as a composer. He composed the soundtrack to se ...

. Since then, he has worked on over 30 other video games, both as a composer and orchestrator. Beginning in 1994, Matsuo has also written music for

series. His first was ''

'', which he considers to be a turning point in his career. In 2003 he composed the soundtrack for the live-action television show ''

Kamen Rider 555 is a Japanese tokusatsu television drama. It is the 13th installment in the Kamen Rider Series. It is a joint collaboration between Ishinomori Productions and Toei Company, Toei, and was broadcast on TV Asahi from January 26, 2003, to January 18, ...

'', and in the early 1990s he arranged pieces for orchestration for the ''Orchestral Game Music Concerts''. While his early work was done as an entirely freelance , in 1995 Matuso was recruited by Kohei Tanaka to join Imagine. Imagine is an independent music composition and sound effect group for video games, consisting of nine employees. While Matsuo has never released an album of original works himself, he has released numerous original tracks on six albums released on

Shinji Hosoe , also known as Megaten and Sampling Masters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring ''Ridge Racer'', ''Street Fighter EX'' and many Namco arcade games between 1987 and 1996. He also runs the music production ...

's Troubadour Records label.

Works

''All works listed below were composed by Matsuo unless otherwise noted.''

Video games

Anime

Television works

References

External links

Profile
at IMAGINE inc.
Discography at VGMdb
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuo, Hayato 1965 births Anime composers Japanese male composers Japanese male pianists Japanese music arrangers Japanese television composers Living people Male television composers Musicians from Chiba Prefecture People from Kashiwa Tokyo University of the Arts alumni Video game composers