KURULIN FUSION

Nobuo Uematsu has become one of the most famous music composer in the video game industry largely due to his emotionally-moving scores for many titles in the popular Final Fantasy series from Square-Enix. Inspired by pop legend Elton John as a boy, Nobuo taught himself to play piano. But during his college years at Kanagawa University he learned that his true passion was to write music. He joined Squaresoft (later Square- Enix) in 1986, where he composed music for many of the Final Fantasy series games as well as other Square-Enix titles, such as Chrono Trigger. He has worked on music for more than 40 video games, where his versatility is reflected in styles ranging from classical to techno-elctronica and jazz. Although Uematsu-san left Square-Enix in 2004 to found his own company--Smile Please, along with a recording company, Dog Ear Records--he has continued to work with Square-Enix on Final Fantasy projects. He has also been involved with a series of symphonic concert performances all over the world featuring his music.

The highly prolific Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed dozens of works for chorus, orchestra and keyboards, but in his lifetime was most famous as an organist. He spent his entire life in Germany, never traveling abroad. Such was his dedication to his craft that when he was 20, he left his duties as a church organist in Arnstand and walked 250 miles to study under Dieterich Buxtehude, considered Germany’s master organist of the era. Famous keyboard compositions by Bach include The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations, which Nobuo Uematsu has re-imagined for Kurulin Fusion. His most famous orchestral work is the Brandenburg concertos. His vocal and choral works include the Christmas Oratorio, the Easter Oratorio and two Magnificats. Bach was pretty prolific as a father too. Between his two wives--Maria and Anna--he had 20 children. Five of his sons became prominent musicians.