[2] He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical.

Otomo was born in Yokohama in 1959, but due to his father's job, moved to Fukushima when he was nine years old.

[3] Otomo has composed music for a number of films and television programs,[4] including Naoki Kato's Abraxas,[5] Tsuyoshi Inoue's The Town's Children,[6] and Ryuichi Hiroki's Yellow Elephant.

[7] He composed the music for the 2013 NHK morning television drama Amachan and it became his most commercially successful work up to that point.

The soundtrack for Amachan reached number 5 on the Oricon Albums Chart,[8] and Kyōko Koizumi's version of the song Shiosai no Memorī from the drama, composed by Otomo, reached number 2 on the Oricon Singles Chart.