Lisa Ooki

	Date of Birth:	February 16, 1960 (Osaka)
	Education:	Graduated from Osaka College of Music
	Active From:	1981
	Related Projects:	Final Fantasy Vocal Collections
	Official Web Site:	Profile at Kasaya Site

Biography

Note: This biography was written exclusively for Square Enix Music Online by Chris. The act of copying it without advance written permission is regarded as a copyright infringement. It was last updated on April 22, 2006.

Born on February 16, 1960 in Osaka, Japan, Lisa Ooki, also referred to variably as Risa Ohki, Kiriko Yamabuki, and Hiroko Nagai, is a highly regarded Japanese musician well-known for her involvement in two Japanese progressive rock bands and her diverse contributions to the Final Fantasy Vocal Collections. Coming from a musical family, Lisa learnt piano from elementary school and was given musical training from a young age from her mother, who also taught her brother, Chikato, a member of the Japanese band Azoth. Ooki eventually graduated from the Osaka College of College, which is very strong in the field of opera. A polyglot, capable of speaking and singing with great technical accuracy in Japanese, English, Portuguese, and French, Ooki's linguistic proficiency is complemented by her profound musicianship. An able singer, keyboardist, arranger, and composer, she has tremendous vocal and dynamic range, emotional sensitivity, and profound tonal qualities; astonishingly versatile, she has successfully worked with music in the areas of classical, jazz, rock, shanson, flamenco, and punk music, as well as musicals.

The singer is most well-known for her involvement in two Japanese progressive rock bands, Pageant and Mr. Sirius, where she adopted the name Hiroko Nagai. Both groups were most active in the late '80s, linked by a beautiful and highly melodic symphonic rock-influenced sound and Ooki's membership. Pageant, formed in 1981 by Ooki, guitarplayer Ikkou Nakajima, bassist Nagashima, and drummer Hideaki Indou, created one of the greatest Japanese prog. rock albums, 1986's La Mosaïque de la Rêverie, but gradually grew more progressive pop-oriented with 1987's Abysmal Masquerade and 1989's The Pay for Dreamer's Sin, the latter of which replaced the original guitarist with Hiroyuki Maeno. Mr. Sirius, a trio led by multi-instrumentalist Kazuhiro Miyatake that also featured drummer and ex-Square musician and developer Chihiro Fujioka, were characterised by their fusions of an Italian symphonic rock sound with the Canterbury style, and released two critically acclaimed studio albums, 1987's Barren Dream and 1990's Dirge. Also on behalf of bands, Ooki produced the 'New Story of Glen Miller' in the Strawberry Dance Band.

Ooki is easily most well-known overseas for her work on the two Final Fantasy Vocal Collection albums, Pray and Love Will Grow. Here, singing in a range of languages and interpreting a wide range of emotions, sometimes whimsical and light, sometimes deep and dramatic, Ooki interpreted the vocal parts of a number of often complex, beautiful, and classically-oriented arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's popular melodies from the N Generation Final Fantasy games. Additionally, she arranged both the opener to the first album, a rendition of the "Prelude" featuring an array of gorgously layered voice samples from Ooki against the simple accompaniment of a solo harp, as well as "God's Cradle" on the second. While the first album was sung solely by Ooki, the second album, for reasons unknown, featured a second vocalist, Ikuko Noguchi, whom Ooki dueted with on three tracks. Ooki used the opportunity of the album's liner notes to reflect her thoughts on some philosophical and political issues important to her. She was accredited as Kiriko Yamabuki for these albums, though most sites incorrectly refer to her as Risa Ohki, and likely became involved due to her curious Square links with Fujioka.

Beyond Final Fantasy, gaijins can experience Ooki's works through a number of game and anime albums. She sung in English on the image album for the Enix-related Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen; the voice of "Innocence" on Ogre Battle Image Album ~ The Entrance, most regard Ooki to have added considerable colour to the perhaps unbalanced synthetic album. She was also one of the chorus members for Ogre ~Grand Repeat~, which was arranged by Masatsugu Shinozaki, who contributed to Pray. Another old album she contributed to was Voice From Emerald Dragon, the vocal album for the 1994 Turbo CD and SNES RPG, where she was the composer, vocalist, and lyricist. She also sung two arrangements for a Genso Suikoden vocal collection, providing "La mia tristezza" and "La passione commuove la storia," the title track of the album; these creative arrangements complemented and contrasting each other remarkably, and Ooki's voice added to the raw passion of both tracks, being the principle source of the album's overall Portuguese feel. She has also appeared on the Sailor Moon Memorial Song Box, singing many of the anime's best singles for the fourth disc. Continuing to be active in a variety of musical areas, her mature and rich contributions to a variety of progressive rock and game albums has cherished many listeners and her versatility will always be regarded as remarkable.

List of Songs for Related Projects

List of Covered Albums