Mitsuto Suzuki

	Date of Birth:	April 6, 1973 (Kyoto)
	Education:	High School
	Residence:	Tokyo
	Instruments:	Piano
	Band Involvement:	muZik (Synthesizers)
	Game Works:	Final Fantasy XIII-2, The 3rd Birthday

Employment History

Biography

Desiring for his music to have a greater mainstream, Suzuki founded the electronic unit Overrocket with co-producer Takashi Watanabe and female vocalist Michiyo Honda in 1997. Suzuki was a mastermind of the group, taking a major role in the composing, mixing, and programming of their music. In contrast to his ambient solo work, he mostly wrote techno-pop music inspired by 80s movements for the unit. The band released five albums under the Aten Recordings label, Mariner's Valley, PreEcho, Pop Music, Post Production, and Overrocket, each subtly distinguished in concept and sound. They are perhaps most remembered for the catchy singles "Text" and "Sunset Bicycle", which became moderately in Japan and Britain alike. Suzuki was also involved in some remixes with the unit, including "Our Song" for the Shop 33 EP and Denki Groove's "Eine Kleine Melodie". In 2004, he also helped to arrange and program Seiji Toda's long-awaited second album There She Goes published by the same record label. Around this time, Overrocket became inactive and Suzuki looked for other projects to participate in.

Suzuki's electronic projects were soon recognised by producers at the Bemani division of Konami.  With the memory of Electric Satie still resonating, he was asked to remix Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1 for Keyboardmania 2nd Mix in 2000. Due to connections he made on this project, he received a succession of roles as a composer, remixer, and lyricist on behalf of other games. He notably contributed post production mixes of hits such as "The End of my Spiritually", "Let's Run", and "Listen Up" to the beatmania IIDX 9, 10, and 12 soundtracks, many of them remarkable contrasts from their originals. For Bemani singer Sana, he also mixed "La Bossanova de Sana" and "Angel" for the studio albums Sana-mode and Sanative. However, he is perhaps best known to overseas audiences for producing the "Beyond the Bounds (Mitsuto Suzuki 020203 Mix feat. Sana)", an abstract electronic remix of the iconic vocal theme for Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. Appreciative of Suzuki's creativity, Konami included this remix on both the soundtrack and single releases for the game.

Desiring more stable employment, Suzuki joined the Square Enix music team as a synthesizer operator in 2006. To familiarise himself with the process of game sound production, he worked alongside the ensemble team of Xbox 360 shooter Project Sylpheed, developing a cutting-edge electro-orchestral sound for the project. He later explored how to push the capacity of handhelds, implementing two streamed pieces — the orchestral "Tale of the Old Nostalgic Kingdom" and the beat-heavy "Summoning the Beast God" — for Yoko Shimomura's Heroes of Mana. Having established himself at the company, he subsequently implemented the entire score the Wii's Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Dungeon. He helped to distinguish Yuzo Takahashi's arrangements from their Final Fantasy originals with rich orchestral samples and modern electronic beats. In another early role at the company, he produced a calming post production mix of Romancing SaGa 2's final battle theme to close the Square Enix Battle Tracks Vol. 1. His close friend Takeharu Ishimoto also requested that he arrange the disco track "Déjà Vu" for the overseas release The World Ends With You.

Despite his job title, Suzuki has produced original albums while at Square Enix. He was the main inspiration behind the Square Enix Music Official Bootleg series released on iTunes in 2006. His personal contributions, "Split", "Jack Yourself", "Light in Darkness", "Clear", and "Common Note", exposed his warm electronica style to a new audience. He conceived many of these tracks during his personal time, but polished them using the advanced equipment in the workplace. The positive response to Suzuki's work through the bootleg albums and streamed Internet samples convinced Square Enix to let him to compile an entire album. Entitled In My Own Backyard, it was released by the company's record label in November 2007. Former Konami colleague Akira Yamaoka praised the release, noting that Suzuki 'seems to know how to stimulate our senses directly' and encouraged people to 'explore the few composers who have synaesthesia like him'. Suzuki also commemorated the album with the four man concert In My Own Band at August 2008's Festa do I-Dep. This concert was well-received by fans of experimental electronica.

During 2008, Suzuki developed his reputation for creative sound production with two contrasting projects on the DS. He worked on the murder mystery RPG Sigma Harmonics as a music producer, arranger, and synthesizer operator. He blended Masashi Hamauzu's characteristic chamber compositions with his own electronic elements to create ethereal and abstract soundscapes. Though the score was shortened from its album version to accommodate the DS' memory limitations, the quality of the samples was exceptional for the console. He subsequently worked under Naoshi Mizuta in similar roles on a very different score, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Intending to revisit times of old rather than offer cutting-edge sounds, Suzuki treated the score's simple melodies with samples imitating the NES and other early consoles. The resulting tracks were often reminiscent of Nobuo Uematsu's classic works on the series, though the samples used were generally more rich and expressive. Nevertheless, Suzuki also pioneered some ambitious fusions of orchestral and chiptune sounds, notably with the adventurous main theme.

While working on these DS titles, Suzuki felt it was the natural time to release his second original work with Square Enix. Having accumulated some tracks during their development, he envisaged an inspiring concept for a new album, entitled Neurovision. Offering a more diverse release, he combined abstract spacey electronica with infectious digitised songs. Around the same time, he also offered his first original compositions for a game score for the flash title Gravidis alongside Ryo Yamazaki. While a landmark in a historical sense, the requested score was too brief to challenge him and he aspired to create more substantial productions. He further surprised his followers by arranging the opening theme song, "Pre-Parade", of the anime Toradora! with the permission of Square Enix. The score was a surprising departure from his earlier work, with its upbeat vocals and pop flavour, but still captured the artist's taste for experimental beats.  He later closed the original concept album Music for Art, taking listeners on an imaginary journey across the universe while recounting memories of his own backyard.

Regarded by his colleagues as a reliable and friendly collaborator, Suzuki's services were also requested on Takeharu Ishimoto's brawler Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Working as an arranger rather than programmer, he interpreted three classic Final Fantasy themes in his trademark electronic ambient style and offered hard-hitting techno remixes of FFI's "Battle Scene 2" and FFIX's "Battle 1". In 2009, his expertise in electronic music impacted on an even more prominent project, Final Fantasy XIII. The artist worked closely with Hamauzu to develop the distinctive electro-orchestral sound for the score and directly arranged some ten tracks featured on the official soundtrack; he peppered compositions such as "Defiers of Fate" and "The Vile Peaks" with energetic beats and ambient samples to mesmerising effect in the game. Propelled to the spotlight with this score, he was invited to give a lecture on music production for the series at the Game Developer Conference 2011 in San Francisco; he contrasted creating the series' scores for the PlayStation 3 and DS from both a musical and technological perspective.

In 2010, Suzuki made the transition from assistant to leader on the Parasite Eve sequel The 3rd Birthday. Suzuki was appointed the lead composer of the project at an early development stage, after the series' original composer Yoko Shimomura enjoyed his solo works. Creating some 50 compositions, he carefully preserved the urban and ambient tone of the original Parasite Eve while taking the series into the 21st century with numerous technological upgrades and musical innovations. He also arranged a number of series' favourites for the soundtrack and remixed the public domain song "Joy to the World" to reflect the Christmas setting and release. The project proved demanding for him due to the release date being brought forward, but he found the overall role creatively fulfilling. He recently noted that the project inspired because, in addition to allowing him to score an entire game for the first time, he was able to work in a wider capacity as a sound producer as part of a development team. While working on this project, he also squeezed the time to make a guest contribution to the browser game Sengoku IXA.

In the last year, Suzuki has also worked as an arranger on a succession of projects. He reprised his role on Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy with three new tracks, offering percussive additions to music from Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII suitable for the action-packed gameplay. As a result of Square Enix's ownership of Taito, Suzuki was also able to contribute to the collaborative project Darius Burst Remix -Wonderworld-, portraying the breath of a machine. At special request from producer Akira Yamaoka, Suzuki also recently contributed to the original charity album Play for Japan in order to support relief following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. In further roles, he created special electronic renderings of classic themes for Chill SQ, X'mas Collections, Lord of Vermilion Re:2, and Chips SQ. The artist has also helped to organise the involvement of several artists in the SQ series, including his former workmate note native. Having impressed producers on Final Fantasy XIII and The 3rd Birthday, Suzuki was appointed as a composer on the ensemble score Final Fantasy XIII-2. Listeners eagerly anticipate how he will adapt his electronic stylings to the game's worlds.

References:

- Various Game & Album Credits
- Official Site (Japanese)
- Official Profile (Japanese)
- Interview with Original Sound Version (English, March 2011)

© Biography by Chris Greening (September 2007). Last updated on December 11, 2011. Do not republish without formal permission.