Yoko Kanno Anime's long history of it's sheer masterful film making and huge array of television series have always been brought forth to the screen through the incredible quality of it's music. Which if were indeed not present, this amazing film medium which is recognized for it's unsurpassed quality would not be the same. Indeed, no other composer in all it's history and popular commercialism and plethora of fans has been regarded highly than that of "Yoko Kanno". While being known for her highly versatile and unsurpassed music style, done to the extent of masterful execution to it's applied animes and J-Pop albums all over Japan; arguably the most incredible aspect of Kanno's works is her impeccable ability to create emotions through the extent of her music. In all her many works Kanno has displayed such brilliance in transforming various popular styles into her own distinctive methods of creating such depth to her music. Yokko Kanno was Born March 19th, 1964 in the "Miyagi Prefecture"; located in the northern most part of Japan's island "Honshu". Though Kanno displayed a devoted interest in music durring high school, she began playing the piano and composing at the age of 3. While attending "Waseda University", she obtained skills as both a composer and musician; though she was entirely self-trained in these durring her early music career. Kanno made her feature music debut as a keyboardist and song writer for the band "Tetsu" in 1987, and remained with the band up until their departure in 1989. Kanno also joined the popular video game company of "Koei", producers of many early PC games such as: "Nobunaga's Ambition" and the popular "Uncharted Waters" series. Though she only remained with the company for about a year, Kanno continued to be a composer, arranger and sound producer for countless animes, live-action television series and films, commercials as well as several J-Pop albums and documentaries. Kanno made her feature solo album debut, with the famed anime hit "Macross Plus" in the year 1994. Much of Kanno's musical score is produced in collaboration with the musical group "Samply Red", as well as the world-renowned Israel, Czech and Warsaw Philharmonical Orchestras. While writing many of the lyrics and composition of her music works, Kanno's other performance skills range from the piano, to many keyboard-based instruments such as the celeste, accordion and harpsicord. Kanno has over 40 J-Pop albums accredited to her and continues to work in collaboration with several Japanese artists including: "Hajime Mizoguchi", "Akino Arai", "Maaya Sakamoto" as well as the sound unit "Samply Red". Besides "Macross Plus", some of Yokko Kanno's anime musical works include such popular series as: "CLAMP School Detectives", "Brain Powered", "Please Save My Earth", "The Vision Of Escaflowne", "Record Of Lodoss War", Katsuhiro Otomo's "Memories" and "Cowboy Bebop". Her music styles range anywhere from jazz, opera, pop, acoustic and electronic, as well as some traditional and more contemporary modern tracks. With musical influences ranging anywhere from Asia, Europe to North and South America. But what is most important about Yoko Kanno's brilliant music is her incredible talent to form these different styles into her own signature pallet of emotion; and remarkable artistic music rendering. Kanno's music continues to entertain, elighten as well as inspire both anime and music fans alike. Kanno is one of anime's greatest composers, and quite arguably one of the greatest composers of all time. Back To Main Page