Ryu Umemoto

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Japanese video game composer (1974–2011)

title: "Ryu Umemoto" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1974-births", "2011-deaths", "japanese-composers", "japanese-male-composers", "japanese-music-arrangers", "musicians-from-yokohama", "japanese-video-game-composers"] description: "Japanese video game composer (1974–2011)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryu_Umemoto" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Japanese video game composer (1974–2011) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameRyu Umemoto
imageRyu Umemoto 20160328.jpg
aliasMIZINCO
birth_date
death_date
originYokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
instrumentSound chip
Synthesizer
genreVideo game
Chiptune
Electronic
occupationComposer
Arranger
Sound director
years_active1992–2011
websiteryu-umemoto.com (archived)
::

| name = Ryu Umemoto | image = Ryu Umemoto 20160328.jpg | caption = | image_size = | landscape = | birth_name = | alias = MIZINCO | birth_date = | death_date = | origin = Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan | instrument = Sound chip Synthesizer | genre = Video game Chiptune Electronic | occupation = Composer Arranger Sound director | years_active = 1992–2011 | label = | associated_acts = | website = ryu-umemoto.com (archived)

Ryu Umemoto was a Japanese video game music composer, born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He is known for composing soundtracks to various visual novel and shoot 'em up video games since the 1990s, for several companies including FamilySoft, , ELF Corporation, D4 Enterprise, and CAVE. He is considered to be one of the greatest FM-synth chiptune composers, and has often been compared to Yuzo Koshiro.

Biography

He was born on February 18, 1974, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He was a descendant of the 16th-century daimyō Takeda Shingen. He was also a practitioner of Zen Buddhism, which had a strong influence on his melodic music, much of which had spiritual undertones: he incorporated scale and key changes and time signatures 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 video game he ever played was Taito's Elevator Action (1983).

He never had any formal education in music, but was entirely self-taught, and had often experimented with synthesizers since he was young. His musical influences included electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra and video game composer Yuzo Koshiro. During high school, 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" arrangement CD for Princess Maker 2.

| filename = Ryu Umemoto - Xenon.ogg | title = Xenon - "Xenon" (1994) | description = The title theme "Xenon" from the 1994 visual novel adventure game Xenon by C's Ware. | filename2 = Eve Burst Error - Room (Marina).ogg | title2 = Eve Burst Error - "Room (Marina)" (1995) | description2 = "Room (Marina)" from the 1995 visual novel adventure game Eve Burst Error by C's Ware.

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, with whom he became friends. His first major projects were for several C's Ware visual novels, beginning with the 1994 title Desire, an eroge science fiction adventure game. 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 D4 Enterprise, establishing the ARTDINK sound department with former employees of ThinkRidge. He began gaining more international attention for his work with the company CAVE in the last few years of his life, producing soundtracks for bullet hell 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.

Soundtracks

Soundtracks composed by Umemoto include the following:

1992:

1993:

1994:

1995:

1996:

2002:

2003:

  • ECLIPSE (Windows)

2005:

2006:

  • CrymeRhymeParadox (Windows)
  • Ano Machi no Koi no Uta (Windows)
  • StoneAge2 (Windows)

2007:

2000:

2009:

  • Contrasta Monochrome Fairytale (Windows)
  • Kaiten Illust Puzzle Guruguru Logic (Nintendo DSi)
  • Kitto, sumi wataru asa shoku yorimo (Windows)
  • Snapdots (Nintendo DSi)

2010:

2011:

References

References

  1. "Ryu Umemoto". VGMdb.
  2. Sorlie, Audun. (September 25, 2012). "Memorial: Composer Ryu Umemoto".
  3. Audun Sorlie. "A Dragon's Journey: Ryu Umemoto in Europe". Hardcore Gaming 101.
  4. "Princess Maker 2". VGMdb.
  5. "Obituary: Ryu Umemoto (1974 - 2011)". Square Enix Music Online.
  6. [https://twitter.com/ryu_umemoto/status/104508361109803008 Twitter / @ryu_umemoto: 訃報。梅本竜氏が、8/17に他界しました。これまでた ...:]
  7. [http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2011/08/post-9f6c.html 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)] {{webarchive. link. (2011-09-25)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1974-births2011-deathsjapanese-composersjapanese-male-composersjapanese-music-arrangersmusicians-from-yokohamajapanese-video-game-composers