is a Japanese composer and sound designer. He has scored almost every installment of Konami's horror video game series Silent Hill since 1999, also producing some of the entries and composing for three film adaptations. He has been the sound director at Grasshopper Manufacture since 2010 and has served as director and sound designer at Supertrick Games since 2018.

Early life

Akira Yamaoka was born in Niigata on February 6, 1968. He sought to become a designer, but instead became a musician whilst studying product design and interior design at Tokyo Art College.

Career

Yamaoka joined Konami on September 21, 1993. He immediately began to work on the games Contra: Hard Corps, Sparkster, and Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2. Shortly thereafter, he worked on the music for the PC Engine and Sega CD versions of Snatcher.

When Konami began searching for a musician to compose the score for Silent Hill, Yamaoka volunteered because he thought he was the only one capable of making the soundtrack. He later named Silent Hill 2 as his favorite of his own soundtracks.

On December 2, 2009, it was announced that Yamaoka was leaving Konami. On February 3, 2010, he joined Grasshopper Manufacture and began working with Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami on their action game Shadows of the Damned. He was first appointed to the role of chief sound officer at Grasshopper, but became involved in aspects of game production as well.

On August 10, 2012, Yamaoka announced he would be releasing a second solo album in late 2012 that would be "different from the usual Silent Hill music". On October 31, he announced that the new three-track Spanish-language EP Revolución would premiere at V-CON during a live performance. In 2014, he expressed interest in returning as a composer for Silent Hills, although the project was later cancelled. In July 2016, he performed live at the BitSummit 4th indie game festival in Kyoto.

Style and influences

Yamaoka has named Suda51 as his favorite game creator and No More Heroes (2007) as his favorite video game. He has also named Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) as his favorite film.

In July 2010, Yamaoka was invited by the website Nintendo Life to curate a short playlist for a new series exploring "the musical tastes of notable video game creators and figures". His playlist consisted of "Moon Over Moscow" by Visage, "Der Mussolini" by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, "Amber" by Craig Armstrong, "Moments in Love" by Art of Noise, and "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone.

In March 2011, Yamaoka auctioned off some of his musical instruments to raise funds for charity after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

|

|-

! 2002

| Contra: Shattered Soldier

| with Sota Fujimori

|-

! 2003

| Silent Hill 3

|

|-

| Silent Hill: The Escape

|

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2008

| Silent Hill: Homecoming

|

|-

| Otomedius Gorgeous!

|arrangements

|-

! 2009

| Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

|

|-

! 2010

| No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

| with several others

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2011

| Shadows of the Damned

|

|-

| Rebuild of Evangelion: Sound Impact

| arrangements

|-

! rowspan="5" | 2012

| Sine Mora

|

|-

| Liberation Maiden

|

|-

| Lollipop Chainsaw

| music director

|-

| Silent Hill: Book of Memories

| guitarist on "Love Psalm (Book of Memories)"

|-

| Black Knight Sword

|

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2013

| Rotolla

|

|-

| Killer Is Dead

| music director

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2014

| Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

|

|-

| Murasaki Baby

| "Neeko"

|-

! 2015

| Persona 4: Dancing All Night

| "Time To Make History" remix

|-

! rowspan="3" | 2016

| Puzzle & Dragons X

| with Kenji Ito, Yuzo Koshiro, and Keigo Ozaki

|-

| The Silver Case

| arrangements, "WHITEOUT"

|-

| Let It Die

| music director

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2017

| Astro Boy: Edge of Time

|

|-

| World of Tanks

| "Battle in Japan" with Andrius Klimka

|-

! 2018

| The 25th Ward: The Silver Case

| with Baiyon, Erika Ito, and Masafumi Takada

|-

! rowspan="3" | 2020

| Dead by Daylight

| Chapter XVI: Silent Hill

|-

| Ninjala

| with several others

|-

|World of Tanks

|"Mirny-13 – Hangar Theme" with Aleksandr Khilko and Aleksey Vanchuk

|-

! rowspan="1" | 2021

| The Medium

| with Arkadiusz Reikowski

|-

! rowspan="1" | 2022

| Deathverse: Let It Die

|

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2023

| Decarnation

|

|-

| Stray Souls

|

|-

! rowspan="3" | 2024

| Silent Hill: The Short Message

|

|-

| Silent Hill 2

| Remake

|-

| Slitterhead

|

|-

! rowspan="3" | 2025

| Silent Hill f

| with Kensuke Inage, Dai, and Koichi "Xaki" Sakita

|-

| Let It Die: Inferno

| Sound Director

|-

| Total Chaos

|with several others; theme and end credits

|-

!2026

|Pathologic 3

|composer of an original track

|}

Films

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

! 2006

| Silent Hill

| with Jeff Danna, also executive producer

|-

! 2011

| Julia X

| "Julia's Wish"

|-

! 2012

| Silent Hill: Revelation

| with Jeff Danna

|-

! 2014

| Patema Inverted

| sound director

|-

! 2017

| Kuso

| with Flying Lotus, Aphex Twin, Thundercat, and various others

|-

! 2026

| Return to Silent Hill

| also executive producer

|}

Anime/television

{|class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

! 2022

| Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

| Anime series based on Cyberpunk 2077

|}

Other

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

! 2006

| iFuturelist

|

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2011

| "Ex Animo" by Play for Japan: The Album

| with various others

|-

| Sdatcher

| An episodic radio drama prequel of Sdatcher

|-

! rowspan="2" | 2012

| Revolución

|

|-

| "Rinkaku (Eternal Slumber Mix)" by Dir En Grey

|

|-

! 2013

| "Rose Cat" by World 1-2

| with various others

|-

! 2014

| "Sustain the Untruth (Remix)" by Dir En Grey

|

|-

! 2016

| Enn Mo Takenawa "Yuigon Zakura"

|

|}

Notes

References

  • Official website
  • Archived Konami blog