A member of Square Enix’s music team, Mitsuto Suzuki is one of the true lesser-knowns, as he has yet to fully score a Square Enix game on his own. I first discovered Suzuki on a “best of battle tracks” album from Square Enix (this one). A bonus track featured Mitsuto Suzuki’s electronica arrangement of a boss battle theme from Romancing SaGa 2. And I absolutely loved it. So much techno music today turns me off instantly, but Suzuki was a master of subtle, ambient electronica. I knew that I wanted more.
I learned that Suzuki’s been around as a musician for quite some time, but under a variety of names. He was first known as ARP2600 in the mid 1990s, and he gained a sizable following in the Japanese techno scene. He formed a group called Overrocket in 1997, and a year later, he released a side project under the name “Electric Satie” (the project was a remixing of the work of French composer Erik Satie). Now at Square Enix, Suzuki-san primarily does synth and sound manipulation, though he occasionally gets a shot at music arrangement with the company as well (see above).
So I finally got around to checking out Suzuki-san’s full-length album, “In My Own Backyard,” which was released in October 2007. It’s in the same vein as that one arrangement I’d previously heard: ambient electronica, mastered to sheer aural perfection.
Okay, so the album’s not perfect. There were a few things that stood out as “negatives” in my mind. After the jump, you’ll find a detailed review of Suzuki’s solo album: In My Own Backyard.
