Motohiro Kawashima


Motohiro Kawashima is a Japanese video game composer and techno producer. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Yuzo Koshiro on various games, including Streets of Rage 2 and 3. He graduated from Kunitachi College of Music.

Biography

Kawashima was born in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He grew up listening to classical music, such as music by George Gershwin. He also listened to artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono. He later moved to Tokyo and got interested in techno culture. During his time at Kunitachi College of Music he created his own techno music and was introduced to Yuzo Koshiro, who was looking for staff at his company, Ancient. He would go on to join his company in 1992, where he composed for and the Game Gear and Master System versions of Batman Returns, with Koshiro assisting him on both projects. The two would work together again for Streets of Rage 2 and 3, with him composing approximately half of the latter's soundtrack. During this time they would also frequently go to nightclubs together for musical inspiration.
In 2010, he used the pen name Kylie & Kashii while working as a commissioned composer for the music label D-topia Entertainment. He would also compose for the indie game Oh, Deer!, as developer Brandon Sheffield was impressed by his work on Streets of Rage 3. He also returned to compose for Streets of Rage 4, along with Koshiro, Yoko Shimomura, Hideki Naganuma, and Keiji Yamagishi.

Works

Video games