~ The Summer of low bitrate and pizzicato ~ If you spotted me walking the streets in the distant summer of 2008, chances were I was listening to either the MP3 soundtracks from Rule of Rose or Echochrome. I played both endlessly on my way to and from work, when taking the occasional walk, or when out shopping for supplies. Two completely distinct games whose music is brought together by seemingly fortuitous parallels, in that both composers, who have a background in classical music composition, opted to write music for a string ensemble to perform.
Minobe & Sakamoto were born a few weeks apart in the fall of 1972. The former started as a self-taught musician capable of composing from an early age, who had a long career at SEGA/WaveForm before joining Delfi Sound. The latter was a child prodigy who went on to found a specialised VGM label, Noisycroak, who also collaborated with SEGA. Both have graduated from Waseda University in the 90s. Equally curious is the fact that the following title in the Echo series, the PSP game Echoshift, was scored by Minobe himself in 2009; while Sakamoto returned for the final entry, Echochrome II, in 2010.
