Riow Arai

	Date of Birth:	1969 (Tokyo)
	Musical Influences:	Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yellow Magic Orchestra
	Game Works:	Front Mission Alternative
	Official Website:	Riow Arai.com

Biography

Note: This biography was written exclusively for Square Enix Music Online by Z-Freak and Chris and is under copyright.

Born in 1969 in Tokyo, Japan, Riow Arai's musical origins can be traced back to him making music in his bedroom studio with his synthesizer after being inspired by Yellow Magic Orchestra. After sending a CD to Frogman Records in 1994, he begun composing music professionally in 1995 and initially released a few solo albums, one being Again. While his work was criticised for being highly repetitive, his music in general has an experimental leaning that distinguishes them against a lot of generic dance music. He was offered a job at Sega to compose a few tracks for the Saturn's Sega Touring Car Championship in 1997. Here, he was given a lot of demands from producer and some of his tracks written for this project were refused, "Sonic Drive" the only one making the final cut. Arai proudly kept his rejected creations in case he could use them in the near-future.

That occasion soon came, as Arai was offered the task of composing for one of Square's most famous series by a friend. He would compose for the latest Front Mission title in development, simply called Front Mission Alternative. Abbreviated as "FA", it was a new type of strategy-RPG; no battle themes were created, as it was done in real-time opposed to the usual turn-based grid combat system. Though Arai largely had a free licence to experiment, the producer insisted the tracks would loop incessantly and also made it quite clear that he wanted a techno score. After about six months of constant fiddling with jagged melodies and techno beats, the soundtrack was finally ready, and was released on CD and vinyl.

After the release of "FA", Arai decided to stick to his true calling: mainstream dance music. He soon released a series of internationally renowned albums published by Soup Disk, notably 1997's Circuit '72, 1998's Mind Edit, and 1999's Beat Bracelet and Mind Edit Syndicate. Following a four year break, Arai still proves able, releasing Device People in 2003, Rough Machine in 2005, and, most recently, Riow Arai + Nongenetic. He has made very occasional contributions to game music since, notably 2006's Tekken 5 & Tekken Dark Resurrection Original Soundtrack, where he composed "Amnesia" and "Elegance in Violence" alongside a large number of collaborators. In addition, the Front Mission Alternative soundtrack has been subject to a reprint from Square Enix had the composition "Airport" was arranged for 2005's Front Mission Online.

List of Relevant Game Projects

List of Covered Albums