In the past twenty years, as a member of Capcom’s Alph Lyle band (the team behind Street Fighter 2’s immortal jams), an in-house composer at Square, and as a freelancer, Yoko Shimomura has arranged some of gaming’s most evocative melodies, songs that enrich their contextual housing every bit as much as character or play design. While many game soundtracks are incapable of transcending their source, Shimomura is one of those rare artists whose work is appreciable beyond the game. I have only played through Parasite Eve once in the past decade, but I still regularly listen to Shimomura’s score of operatic electronica and discordant tone poems. In a recent interview with Music4Games, Shimomura discussed her recently released best-of collection Drammatica, which features full orchestra performances of her work on Legend of Mana, among others. The interview’s brief but still an excellent read for anyone interested in the art of composing for videogames.
Our thanks to Joystiq for pointing us to the interview.