Yoko Kanno
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"You have got to hear this shit. It's like she's hitting you over the head with a sock full of Jonny Quest!"
—Alternate John Williams, John and Yoko
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Yoko Kanno is a famous Japanese composer and musician, known primarily for her work on anime soundtracks. Her name being attached to a project has caused And the Fandom Rejoiced moments for many fans.
Born in Japan in 1964 and having began her career doing video game soundtracks in the late 1980s, she has written or otherwise contributed to the soundtracks of a large number of anime, including (but not limited to):
- Macross (Plus, Dynamite 7 and Frontier)
- Vision of Escaflowne (along with Hajime Mizuguchi)
- Cowboy Bebop (with her backing band The Seatbelts, probably her most famous and critically acclaimed soundtrack)
- RahXephon (she composed the opening song Hemisphere and the movie theme tune the rainbow, both performed by Maaya Sakamoto)
- Ghost in the Shell (Stand Alone Complex, Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, and Solid State Society)
- Earth Maiden Arjuna
- Wolf's Rain
- Genesis of Aquarion (as well as it's sequel, Aquarion Evol)
- Darker than Black
- Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (she composed the opening, Kiseki no Umi, performed by Maaya Sakamoto)
- Brain Powerd
- Turn a Gundam
Besides soundtrack work for movies, TV, anime and video games, Kanno has occasionally ventured into pop music; she has released two solo albums, and has served as producer for several albums from other musicians (including several collaborations with Maaya Sakamoto). She sometimes sings under the pseudonym of "Gabriella Robin", which for many years was sort of her Secret Identity. She finally revealed it in 2009 when she began performing live as Gabriella.
Kanno can write in any genre known to mankind - and even a few that haven't been invented yet. She is the master of the Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly. Surprisingly enough, she isn't a One Woman Band, something that would make her even more awesome. She is a keyboardist and frontwoman of The Seatbelts.
Alternate Universe John Williams has a shrine dedicated to her.
A slightly more in-depth biography can be found here, and a slightly more in-depth discography can be found here.
Not to be confused with Yoko Ono. Or Yoko Oh No: this one is more like "Yoko Hell Yeah".
- Gratuitous English: Her titles sometimes slip into Word Salad Title territory.
- The Jimmy Hart Version: She's quite well-known for making these - the Macross Frontier soundtrack, for instance, borrows from everything between Deep Purple and Star Wars.
- Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly
- Production Posse
- Secret Identity: Gabriela Robin - this was rumoured for years amongst anime fans, and finally confirmed in 2009.
- Word Salad Lyrics: When she writes lyrics, this can happen. And sometimes what sounds like word salad is actually a nonsense language. (The Ghost in the Shell soundtrack in particular has a lot of this.)