Troubadour Records is an independent Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

, founded in 1992 by Shinji Hosoe

Shinji Hosoe

, also known as MEGATEN and SamplingMasters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring Ridge Racer, Keyboardmania 3rd mix and many early 1990s Namco arcade games. He also created the in-game music for Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse...

.

The label was set up to release original (non-game) work by numerous video game composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s. Some of the composers who have released material on the label include Hitoshi Sakimoto

Hitoshi Sakimoto

is a Japanese video game composer and arranger. He is best known for scoring the games Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, though he has composed soundtracks for over 70 games and arranged music for more than 40 others. He began playing music and video games in elementary school, and began...

, Ayako Saso, Takayuki Aihara, Motoaki Takenouchi

Motoaki Takenouchi

Motoaki Takenouchi is a Japanese composer, most recognised for his video game soundtracks during the 1990s, particularly for the Shining series of games...

, Hayato Matsuo

Hayato Matsuo

is a Japanese video game and anime composer, arranger and orchestrator. He has worked on titles such as Front Mission 3, Final Fantasy XII, the Shenmue series, and Magic Knight Rayearth. Inspired by his mother, a piano teacher, he graduated from the music composition department of Tokyo University...

, Nobuyoshi Sano

Nobuyoshi Sano

is a Japanese video game composer, musician and record producer most famous for scoring some songs for Ridge Racer and Tekken series, most notably Tekken 3, where he composed most of the soundtrack. He worked for Namco and Cavia, he actually works for the company Detune, he designed and produced ...

 and Yasuhisa Watanabe, among many others.

Troubadour Records has also released music by some of Hosoe's side projects, such as Oriental Magnetic Yellow (a tribute band to Yellow Magic Orchestra

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...

) and Manikyua-Dan.

in 2000, Troubadour Records ceased its activities and Shinji Hosoe founded a new record label called Super Sweep Records

External links

• Troubadour Records – Official site
• Rocketbaby Interview with Shinji Hosoe