Michiru Yamane

Yamane's musical style draws on baroque, classical and rock traditions, with both Johann Sebastian Bach and Yellow Magic Orchestra as prominent influences.

Yamane grew an interest in music at an early age, practicing on the electric organ and piano.

[4][1] In college, she learned how to write music for large orchestras, and did her thesis on German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

[5] Yamane's first work at the company were the main themes for King's Valley II and Risa no Yōsei Densetsu (1988).

[5] Yamane felt these games were a good introduction to the "Konami sound" and helped build her foundation.

She believes it is possible she contributed a few pieces as the sound team was busy with multiple projects at the time.

[7] Yamane felt there was a link with the game's vampiric themes and the classical music she had grown up with.

[6] Yamane felt more expressive freedom as she was no longer limited to FM chips and could use real sounds.

[5][7] For Symphony of the Night, she drew heavy inspiration from concept artwork by Ayami Kojima.

[6] Yamane continued to remain deeply involved with Koji Igarashi and the Castlevania development team after Symphony of the Night, reviewing artwork and scenario writings for further games.

[5] After Sota Fujimori joined Konami in 1998, Yamane worked with him on Gungage (1999) and Elder Gate (2000), mixing her classic symphonic style with his modern electronic music.

[5] After writing music for over 40 games at Konami,[1] Yamane left the company in 2008 to become a freelance composer.

[5] She came to this decision after getting a pet cat, and growing a desire to slow down her career and move to working from home.

[11][2] Her first live performance was a song from Symphony of the Night at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig in 2006.

[4] She has also drawn inspiration from other composers including Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin.

[5] In high school, Yamane listened to Kraftwerk, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), with the latter being considered a major influence on many Japanese game composers.

[2] Yamane has expressed enjoying music from other game composers, particularly Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yoko Kanno, and Motoi Sakuraba.

[1] As a member of the Konami Kukeiha Club, Yamane frequently collaborated with other composers, arrangers, and sound programmers.