was a Japanese

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

composer, born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. He is known for composing soundtracks to various

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

and shoot 'em up

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 since the 1990s, for several companies including FamilySoft,

C's Ware C's may refer to: * The Boston Celtics, American basketball franchise * Citizens (Spanish political party) Citizens ( es, link=no, Ciudadanos ; ca, link=no, Ciutadans ; eu, link=no, Hiritarrak; gl, link=no, Cidadáns; shortened as Cs—C's un ...

, ELF Corporation,

D4 Enterprise is a Japanese video game publisher currently specializing in content delivery services like Project EGG over the Internet. Some of the titles that have been re-released include many of Compile (company), Compile's titles, like the ''Madō Monoga ...

, and

CAVE A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

. He is considered to be one of the greatest FM-synth

chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...

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

, and has often been compared to

Yuzo Koshiro is a Japanese composer and sound programmer. He is often regarded as one of the most influential innovators in chiptune and video game music, producing music in a number of genres including rock, jazz, symphonic, and various electronic genres ...

Biography

He was born on February 18, 1974, in

. He was a descendant of the 16th-century ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

. He was also a practitioner of

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

, which had a strong influence on his melodic music, much of which had spiritual undertones: he incorporated scale and

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

changes and

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

s in a way that would mathematically reference Zen concepts, such as angles of holy temples or mountains, meditative breathing rhythms or lucky numbers. The first

he ever played was

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

's ''

Elevator Action is a platform shooter game released in arcades by Taito in 1983. The player assumes the role of Agent 17, a spy infiltrating a 30-story building filled with elevators and enemy agents who emerge from closed doors. The goal is to collect secret ...

'' (1983). He never had any formal education in music, but was entirely self-taught, and had often experimented with

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s since he was young. His musical influences included

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

band

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 video game composer

. During

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Umemoto began doing freelance projects for personal computer game soundtracks. His first assignment was for the company FamilySoft, after sending them some demo works. During the 1990s, he composed the soundtracks for various personal computer games, establishing himself as a commercial musician. From 1992 to 1993, he worked for FamilySoft, producing soundtracks for mostly anime-based games, including several based on the mecha anime franchises '' Gundam'' and '' Macross''. He also arranged some of the tracks in the 1995 "

PMD PMD may refer to: In government and diplomacy: * Pakistan Meteorological Department * Performance Management Division, of the Cabinet Office, Government of India * Possible Military Dimensions of a nuclear program (specifically that of Iran) In ...

" arrangement CD for ''

Princess Maker 2 is a 1993 Japanese video game developed by the company Gainax. It is the second installment in the ''Princess Maker'' series of social simulation games where the player must act as a parental figure and raise a young girl. The player takes rol ...

''. He then worked as a freelance musician on various projects for other companies such as

and ELF Corporation, often working closely with scenario writer Hiroyuki Kanno whom he became friends with. His first major projects were for several C's Ware

s, beginning with the 1994 title ''Xenon'', an eroge

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

. He had to meet tight deadlines for C's Ware, often under two months while working on simultaneous projects. He also composed the soundtracks for other C's Ware visual novels such as ''Desire'' (1994) and ''EVE Burst Error'' (1995). He then worked with ELF, for which he composed the soundtrack for their most famous visual novel, '' YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world'' (1996). In later years, he expanded his range of activity as an arranger, conductor and sound director. From 2007 to 2008, he began working for

, establishing the ARTDINK sound department with former employees of ThinkRidge. He began gaining more international attention for his work with the company

in the last few years of his life, producing soundtracks for

bullet hell Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

shooters such as '' Espgaluda II: Black Label'' (2010), '' Akai Katana'' (2010), ''NIN2-JUMP'' (2011), and Mushihimesama Version 1.5 (2011). On August 16, 2011, he died of chronic bronchitis at the age of 37.お伝えしなければならない事があります。: 開発日誌 (INSTANT BRAIN公式ブログ)

Soundtracks

Soundtracks composed by Umemoto include the following: 1992: *''HIBIKI'' ( PC-98) *'' Mobile Suit Gundam Hyper Classic Operation'' (

FM Towns The is a Japanese personal computer, built by Fujitsu from February 1989 to the summer of 1997. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and PC games, but later became more compatible with IBM PC compatibles. ...

) *''Square Resort: Hyper Senshasen'' ( X68000'') 1993: *''AZURE'' (FM Towns) *''Dengeki Division'' (PC-98) *'' Macross: Remember Me'' (PC-98) *'' Mobile Suit Gundam: A Year of War'' (PC-98) *'' Mobile Suit Gundam: Return of Zion'' (PC-98) *''MSX Train'' (MSX) *''

'' (PC-98, FM Towns, PC Engine,

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

, GP32) (arrangement of 2 tracks for a music CD) *''

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is a Japanese animated franchise about a five-member superhero ninja team created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced by Tatsunoko Productions. The original anime series, which debuted in 1972, was eponymously entitled ''Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatchaman ...

'' (PC-98) *''War Torn Versnag'' (X68000) 1994: *''Macross: Skull Leader'' (PC-98) *''Macross: Love Stories'' (PC-98) *'' DESIRE ～Spiral of Immorarity～'' (PC-98, Saturn, Windows,

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

) *'' XENON ～Phantom Limb～'' (PC-98, FM Towns) 1995: *'' EVE Burst Error'' (PC-98, FM Towns, Saturn, Windows, PlayStation 2) 1996: *'' YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world'' (PC-98, Saturn, Windows) *''GROUNSEED'' (PC-98) 2000: *'' Psyvariar'' ( Arcade,

) 2002: *'' Popotan'' (Windows) 2003: *''ECLIPSE'' (Windows) 2005: *''

Espgaluda II ''Espgaluda II'' (エスプガルーダII) is a bullet hell shoot'em up originally released by Cave in the arcades in 2005 as a sequel to '' Espgaluda''. An Xbox 360 release, titled ''Espgaluda II Black Label'', was released in 2010 in Japan. It ...

'' (Arcade,

i-mode NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and the packet- ...

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

) *''GLAS AUSZEICHNUNG'' (Windows) 2006: *''CrymeRhymeParadox'' (Windows) *''Ano Machi no Koi no Uta'' (Windows) *''StoneAge2'' (Windows) 2007: *'' R.U.R.U.R.'' (Windows) 2009: *''Contrasta ~Monochrome Fairytale~'' (Windows) *''Kaiten Illust Puzzle Guruguru Logic'' ( Nintendo DSi) *''Kitto, sumi wataru asa shoku yorimo'' (Windows) *'' Snapdots'' (Nintendo DSi) 2010: *''

Espgaluda II Black Label ''Espgaluda II'' (エスプガルーダII) is a bullet hell shoot'em up originally released by Cave in the arcades in 2005 as a sequel to ''Espgaluda''. An Xbox 360 release, titled ''Espgaluda II Black Label'', was released in 2010 in Japan. It w ...

'' (Xbox 360) *'' Akai Katana'' (Arcade) *''

Akai Katana Shin is a bullet hell Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certa ...

'' (Xbox 360) 2011: *'' NIN2-JUMP'' ( Xbox Live Arcade) *''

Instant Brain In physics and the philosophy of science, instant refers to an infinitesimal interval in time, whose passage is instantaneous. In ordinary speech, an instant has been defined as "a point or very short space of time," a notion deriving from its ety ...

'' (Xbox 360) * Mushihimesama Version 1.5 (Arcade)

References

External links

*
Risque Fellow
*
Memorial: Composer Ryu Umemoto
' - biography at

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umemoto, Ryu 1974 births 2011 deaths Japanese composers Japanese male composers Japanese music arrangers Musicians from Yokohama Video game composers