Yuki Kajiura
Yuki Kajiura | |
---|---|
Born | 6 August 1965 (Tokyo, Japan) |
Japanese name | 梶浦 由記 |
Gender | Female |
Role | Composer Arranger Lyricist Musician Album Producer |
Affiliations | See-saw (1992-1995) Space Craft Produce (1993-2018) FictionJunction Music (2018-present) |
Contributions | Xenosaga Episode II A Missing Year Xenosaga Episode III |
Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese composer and producer of soundtrack music. She has been the lead composer for several games and media in the Xenosaga series. She is notable for her vocal works which make use of a made-up language, Kajiurago.
Biography[edit]
Kajiura was born on the 6th of August, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan. Her interest in music began at the age of seven through the influence of her father; she provided piano accompaniment to his classical and opera songs.[1] Her attempts to sing along with opera songs in languages she didn't know would inspire the development of Kajiurago later in life.[2] Kajiura wrote her first composition at this time, titled "Thank you, goodbye", written for her grandmother as her family was moving to (then) West Germany.[1]
Kajiura first began pursuing music as a career in 1992 (having previously worked as a systems engineering programmer) in the band See-saw, with whom she worked until they broke up in 1995.[3] In 1993 she joined the label Space Craft Produce and composed soundtrack music for a variety of media - primarily anime, but also including video games, TV and commercials, and independent artists.
In 2003, Kajiura founded the FictionJunction project, a singing group consisting of Kajiura and several vocalists who sing Kajiura's songs.[3] Some of these vocalists have performed for Xenosaga tracks, such as Yuriko Kaida, Keiko Kubota, and Kaori Oda.[4] Around this time, Kajiura began work on the music of Xenosaga, which would continue until 2006 with the release of Xenosaga Episode III.
Kajiura left Space Craft Produce in 2018 due to contract disputes.[5] She formed her own talent agency, FictionJunction Music, and has worked with them until the present day.
Kajiura frequently goes on live tours performing her works with vocalists from FictionJunction, including songs written for Xenosaga such as the image theme of Xenosaga II, my long forgotten cloistered sleep (unreleased work of Xenosaga), and maybe tomorrow. She has also released several compilation albums of her works: FICTION, The Works for Soundtrack, and FICTION II, the latter of which features music from Xenosaga.
Relevance to the Xeno series[edit]
Kajiura's main contributions to the series are music compositions in the latter games and media of Xenosaga.
Xenosaga Episode II[edit]
- Composer (almost all[note 1] tracks featured on the Xenosaga II: Jenseits Von Gut und Böse Movie Scene Soundtrack, as well as Sakura #5 (theme-music box ver.))
- Arranger (all aforementioned tracks, as well as Nephilim)
- Lyricist (all vocal tracks)
- Performer (keyboard)
- Programming
- Producer (Xenosaga II: Jenseits Von Gut und Böse Movie Scene Soundtrack, Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse Soundtrack)
- Mixer
A Missing Year[edit]
- Composer (all tracks)
- Arranger (all tracks)
- Lyricist (all vocal tracks)
Xenosaga Episode III[edit]
- Composer (all tracks)
- Arranger (all tracks)
- Lyricist (all vocal tracks)
- Performer (keyboard)
- Programming
- Producer (Xenosaga III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Original Sound Best Tracks)
Other media[edit]
Yuki Kajiura 30th Anniversary Early BEST Collection for Soundtrack[edit]
The Yuki Kajiura 30th Anniversary Early BEST Collection for Soundtrack is a collection of tracks from Kajiura's soundtracks, released on the 6th of December, 2023. The collection features (among others) tracks from Xenosaga Episode II and Xenosaga Episode III:
- in the beginning, there was...
- fatal fight (Jin & Margulis)
- lamentation
- we've got to believe in something
- the battle of your soul
- hepatica (KOS-MOS)
- battleland
- testament
- she's coming back
- godsibb
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Nephilim is an arrangement of Yasunori Mitsuda's composition Song of Nephilim from the music of Xenosaga Episode I.
Gallery[edit]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 RocketBaby interview with Yuki Kajiura via canta-per-me.net
- ↑ Origin of Kajiurago facebook post
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Biography of Yuki Kajiura on canta-per-me.net
- ↑ FictionJunction profile via Flying Dog's website
- ↑ Article: Anime music composer Yuki Kajiura leaves agency after 25 years, via animenewsnetwork.com