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Noriko Matsueda
BiographyThis biography was written by Chris exclusively for use at Square Enix Music Online. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission, as this is a violation of copyright. Noriko Matsueda, born on December 18, 1971, in Tochigi, began her musical education at a very early age. At just three, she received a scholarship in music, since she was a gifted child, and has never left the field since. It's therefore not surprising that she went on to study various professional courses at the Tokyo Conservatoire Shobi, which was responsible for not only training but also for introducing her to Takahito Eguchi. Described as friends and rivals at the conservatoire, these two would eventually establish themselves as one of Square Enix's finest duos. After graduation, Noriko Matsueda went into employment with Square in 1994, a year before Takahito Eguchi joined. She was initially paired up with the one and only Yôko Shimomura, who had also just joined Square, to compose the score for Front Mission, released in 1995. The score, highly acclaimed for its diversity and quality, would be the first of numerous Front Mission scores to be produced over the next decade. Following this, she went on to compose the track "Boss Battle 1" for Yasunori Mitsuda's and Nobuo Uematsu's Chrono Trigger Original Sound Version. The track was arranged by Nobuo Uematsu and became one of the most memorable themes from the game. In 1995, Noriko Matsueda was given her first solo work, which was to compose the score for Bahamut Lagoon, beginning her professional collaboration with Takahito Eguchi. This professional relationship emerged after he helped her (as a friend, not a colleague) to compose the score for Front Mission a year earlier. Although Matsueda composed all the tracks for Bahamut Lagoon, Eguchi orchestrated and arranged two of them. Shortly after the release of Bahamut Lagoon in 1996, Matsueda composed one track for the score of the PlayStation game Tobal No. 1, entitled "Tower Block." Unfortunately, however, while it was present in the Tobal No. 1 Original Soundtrack, this was never used in the game. Eguchi and Matsueda were reunited in 1997 when Matsueda composed the score for Front Mission 2, the long-anticipated 'sequel' to her very first work. While Matsueda composed all the tracks, Eguchi was responsible for sound programming and arrangements, which gave him his biggest role up to that point. Matsueda joined forces with Eguchi once more in 1999 to create the score for the racing RPG Racing Lagoon, which took a much more electronic approach compared to their other works. This time, however, they both collaborated as composers, giving Takahito Eguchi his first composing role to date. Although Eguchi's role in composition was minor in comparison to Matsueda's, he was heavily involved in arranging her work throughout the score. They collaborated once again in the production of the score for the PlayStation 2 game The Bouncer in 2000. Eguchi was given a major composing role alongside Matsueda here and was allowed to stand out on his own a lot more. Due to their heavy collaboration during the production of each track for the score, their styles often fused into one another and meant it was difficult to define each composer's work distinctly as separate entities. Indeed, this is why one does not find any individual credits in listings following Racing Lagoon. While both scores were much jazzier and lighter than Matsueda's previous scores for the Front Mission series, they were well-received by fans and bonded the duo together much closer. Matsueda's next project reunited her with Eguchi again and involved composing and arranging the score for Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003. As one of the few Final Fantasy scores not to feature Nobuo Uematsu, this score was to turn a few heads, not just because of the choice of composers, but for its wild and often unsuccessful experimentation. While tracks like "Eternity ~Memory of the Lightwaves~," "real Emotion," and "1000 Words" won the heart of many fans, and have been featured heavily in singles from Final Fantasy X-2 since, the Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack received a very mixed response from Final Fantasy and video game music fans alike. Fortunately, their Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission Original Soundtrack was much more highly acclaimed. This featured English versions of vocal tracks from Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack sung by Jade from Sweetbox and new tracks to commemorate the release of Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission in Japan. In addition, the arranged albums released after the Final Fantasy X-2 Original Soundtrack, which included three vocal album and a piano collection, received a positive response from most fans. Having left Square Enix sometime after the Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection project, nothing has been heard from Matsueda since. Her loss from Square Enix is definitely a heartfelt one, since she was one of their most talented composers, having mastered both a symphonic and electronic style. If she is intending to become a freelance composer, she certainly has the potential, though news of any works have yet to be revealed. It is quite ironic how Eguchi seems to have grown into a more dominant success than Matsueda in recent years, despite Matsueda being much more prominent in their earlier collaborations. Eguchi has conducted several projects away from Matsueda since they first collaborated, having minor roles on Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange, Kingdom Hearts, and substantial roles on several animes; on the other hand, apart from composing a few tracks for Square Enix's PlayOnline service in 2002, Matsueda hasn't done any anything away from him since Tobal No. 1. One can only hope this will change in the future. List of Game ProjectsNote: This list only includes games that the composer has actively worked on, so those games that feature reprises of the composer's work from older titles are not included. Key: C = Composer, A = Arranger, P = Performer, S = Sound Programmer, E = Sound Effects, M = Synthesizer Operator
List of AlbumsOriginal Scores
Arranged Albums
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