Name-that-artist Solution

This week, we move slightly away from the common definition of an artist to encompass this Japanese sensation. Besides being a skilled keyboardist, this artist is also a talented composer and arranger.

- Born in the 1960s, this artist has been working in the music industry for over two decades, beginning with his/her work as a composer for the soundtrack of the 1986 video game “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” In the following years, this artist has continued composing video game soundtracks, up to and including Ragnarok Online 2 with a planned release date later this year.

- In addition to video games, this composer is well known for his/her work on anime soundtracks, particularly “Ghost in the Shell” and “Cowboy Bebop.” Apart from anime and video games, this artist has composed for a number of commercials and films. Notable companies for which this artist has composed for include Canon, Microsoft, and Master Card.

- Finally, on a number of this artist’s albums a singer-songwriter appears (mostly singing gibberish); however, many sources claim that this singer is actually this artist performing under a pseudonym. Information supporting this includes the fact that the mysterious singer-songwriter’s voice is nearly identical to this artist’s and that in any live performance of the song which the mysterious person is supposed to have sung, the part has been performed by another artist.

For those of you who were wonder, last week’s artist was Björk.

The answer is Yoko Kanno.