1. Kumi Tanioka joined video game developer and publisher Square that same year, and worked on over 15 games for them before leaving to work as an independent composer in 2010.
15 Facts About Kumi Tanioka
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Kumi Tanioka was born in Hiroshima, Japan, where she studied music and composition while in school and enjoyed listening to video game music as her younger brother was a gamer.
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Kumi Tanioka attended Kobe University, where she studied music and joined a choir.
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Kumi Tanioka composed for two other projects over the next two years, All Star Pro-Wrestling with Tsuyoshi Sekito and Kenichiro Fukui and Blue Wing Blitz by herself.
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On February 28,2010 Kumi Tanioka announced her departure from Square Enix, following several other Square Enix composers such as Kenichiro Fukui, Junya Nakano, and Masashi Hamauzu; she joined the composer's group GE-ON-DAN with many other composers like Nakano.
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Kumi Tanioka composed in 2011 music for iOS interactive storybooks, Snow White, The Ugly Duckling, and Hansel and Gretel, before founding her own independent company, Riquismo, in August 2012.
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Riquismo is not a full studio, and Kumi Tanioka continues to work independently.
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Kumi Tanioka has said that she decided to become a freelance composer because she wanted to write for a wider variety of subjects.
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Kumi Tanioka has described the musical style for the soundtrack to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles as being based on "ancient instruments".
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Kumi Tanioka says the idea came to her while looking at illustrations of the game world, which gave her the idea of making "world music", where the tracks would "not [be] limited to a single country or culture".
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Kumi Tanioka feels that specific instruments do not necessarily need to be tied to a specific geographic region, and tries to see, for example, how an Indian instrument and a Celtic instrument might work with each other.
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Kumi Tanioka returned to using instruments in an "ethnic manner" again in composing the soundtrack for Echoes of Time.
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Kumi Tanioka did the performances herself rather than use an outside performer as most Final Fantasy soundtracks have done primarily because she "likes to play piano", and they were done without any sheet music, as she preferred instead to improvise.
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Kumi Tanioka took extensive piano lessons as a child, and lists piano and choral music as the biggest influences on her musical style.
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Kumi Tanioka has performed live at several events, including 2011's Final Fantasy XI-themed VanaCon or 2021's Tokyo Game Show for the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remaster; she likes to do live performances as she feels it connects her with the listener's response to her music, unlike when composing where she can only imagine audience's responses to hearing her music.