Soyo Oka

Infobox musical artist
Name = Soyo Oka


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Background =
Birth_name =
Alias = DJ Alice
Born = Birth date and age|1964|4|9|mf=y
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Origin =
Instrument = Piano
Genre =
Occupation = Musician, composer, performer
Years_active = 1987 - present
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL = http://www.dj-alice.com/
Notable_instruments =

nihongo|Soyo Oka|岡 素世|Oka Sóyo|b. April 9 1964 (also known as DJ Alice) is a Japanese composer and musician, most recognised for her video game soundtracks during the 1980s and 1990s.

Biography

Oka was born in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo, Japan. She first started learning to play the piano in 1970 when she was 6 years old, and started composing music nearly a decade later in 1979, when she was 15.

Oka attended the Osaka College of Music in Osaka, Japan, majoring in Composition. During her time as a student, she began studying the music of Koji Kondo, and started composing music for video games, feeling that composing video game music would be a promising career. She was later hired by Nintendo as an inhouse composer in 1987, and had the opportunity to work on a game score with Koji Kondo (whom she still holds in high esteem to this day.)

Having left Nintendo in 1995, she has worked and continues to work as a freelance musician, composing scores for television, radio, software, websites and CD-ROMs in Japan. She has also released numerous sample libraries, and performs on piano for various events and projects. Companies she has worked for include Sony, Mitsubishi, Seiko, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Yamaha and Toshiba, amongst others. It is unconfirmed whether she has worked on any more video game soundtracks since 1997, although in 2000 as part of her RocketBaby interview, she mentioned that she may be working on some game soundtracks for Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast. Whether these projects came to pass or not is unknown.

In 2005, Oka composed "Shinkirou (Mirage)", one of the ending themes for the anime Desert Punk. It was also released on the "Destiny of the Desert" CD single in the same year.

Musical Style

A large amount of Oka's game music is fairly liberal and distinctly jazz based, often making use of irregular time signatures and uneven phrase lengths. More commonly heard are musical traits such as syncopation, changes in tonality (modulations) and a wide selection of modern jazz chords and voicings, of which are perhaps the largest staple of her music. Considering the limited sound capabilities of the NES and SNES consoles she composed for (particularly in terms of polyphony), this was quite an accomplishment. However, even though much of her music has a modern sound, the majority of her work retains consonance and is thematic, and frequently utilises melodic lines and hooks.

The majority of her work shows clear influence taken from the music of Koji Kondo, and as a result, occasionally her soundtracks are confused for having been written by him (particularly Super Mario Kart). Additionally, she has cited Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky, John Williams, Lyle Mays, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Queen, and Chick Corea as some of her musical influences.

Works

Nintendo Entertainment System

*Ice Hockey (1988): composer
*Wario's Woods (with Shinobu Amayake) (1994): composer

Famicom Disk System

* (Japan) (with Nigeno Kanazashi) (1987): composer
* (Japan) (with Hiroaki Suga and Nigeno Kanazashi) (1988): composer
*Vs. Excitebike (Japan) (1988): composer
*Famicom Mukashi Banashi - Yuu Yuu Ki (Zenpen) (Japan) (1989): composer
*Famicom Mukashi Banashi - Yuu Yuu Ki (Kouhen) (Japan) (1989): composer

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

*Pilotwings (with Koji Kondo) (1990): composer
*Sim City (1991): composer
*Super Mario Kart (with Taro Bando) (1992): composer
*Super Mario All-Stars (1993): composer and arranger*
*Wario's Woods (with Shinobu Amayake, Hiroaki Suga and Tadashi Ikegami) (1994): original composer**

=Sony PlayStation=

*Lagnacure (Japan) (1997): sound effects
*Battle Bugs (Japan) (1997): composer

*"Most of the material on this score was originally composed by Koji Kondo for the Super Mario Bros. series of games on the NES, and as a result, Oka predominantly worked as an arranger for this project; only a few pieces of music are original and entirely unique to the game."

**"The SNES version of Wario's Woods has a largely different soundtrack, though a small amount of Oka's music is used. It is likely that she had no direct involvement with this project."

Notes and References

* Neo Cosmic Industries (2000). " [http://web.archive.org/web/20060514153126/http://rocketbaby.net/interviews_soyo_oka.html RocketBaby's Interview with Soyo Oka] ". Accessed 14 May 2006.
* Oka, Soyo (2004). " [http://www.dj-alice.com/ DJ Alice Homepage] ". Accessed 2 October 2007.
* JCAA. " [http://www.jcaa1970.com/arrangers/konsakka4.htm Composer profile for Soyo Oka] ". Accessed 6 October 2007.

External links

*ja icon [http://www.dj-alice.com/ DJ Alice - Soyo Oka's Homepage]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060514153126/http://rocketbaby.net/interviews_soyo_oka.html Interview with Soyo Oka] at [http://www.rocketbaby.net/ RocketBaby]
* [http://www.vgmdb.net/db/artists.php?id=500 Artist profile] at VGMdb
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/64/soyo-oka/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix