About 日比野則彦

Norihiko Hibino (日比野 則彦 Hibino Norihiko, born September 3, 1973) is a Japanese composer and saxophonist. After graduating from Berkeley College of Music, he moved to Kansas City to start a career as a solo jazz musician. He later relocated to Japan to work for Konami, where he became best known his work on Konami's Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders video game series. After working with Konami, Hibino started his own company, GEM Impact, which is a studio comprised of composers Takahiro Izutani, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Takahide Ayuzawa, and Norihiko Hibino himself. Additional staff includes DJ Uraken who acts mainly as a producer. The studio often enlists the talents of Uetake MacARTHUR for their graphical needs. GEM Impact operates alongside Hibino's live venue called Vanilla Mood, in Roppongi, Tokyo. Many artists who play at Vanilla Mood are recorded for various GEM Impact projects. An additional part of GEM Impact is Hibino's record label, called GEM Factory, which has put out the debut album of The Outer Rim and has plans to feature more albums in the future. Through GEM Impact, Hibino and his team have been able to work on games, anime, websites, and other projects that require music. While their involvement with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was not publicized by Konami, Hibino divulged in an interview with Original Sound Version that GEM Impact in fact provided approximately 90 minutes of music for the game's cinematic sequences.[1]. On September 2, 2008, Hibino and GEM Impact were announced to be the composers for the upcoming action title on the Xbox 360 developed by FromSoftware, Ninja Blade. Hibino noted that he was responsible for the title's main theme and ending theme with the rest of the team helped with the rest of the score. Apart from working on Game scores, Norihiko Hibino worked on the musical score for Blassreiter --- a Gonzo & Nitro+ anime which aired in 2008.