Go Ichinose

Go Ichinose (一之瀬剛, Ichinose Go) is a Japanese composer who has been working at Game Freak since 1993.^[1] He is best known for composing different tracks in the Pokémon video games series, a turn-based JRPG developed by Game Freak. He has been a composer for Pokémon since Pokémon Gold and Silver was released in 1999 and a music leader since Pokémon Diamond and Pearl which was released in 2006.^[2]

When Ichinose was in kindergarten his parents forced him to attend a music class and a swimming school. He disliked the swimming classes, crying until he didn't have to attend anymore. He stayed in the music classes but was unable to advance to higher levels because he never did his homework. Ichinose switched to the piano and until junior high he refused to practice pieces that he didn't like. If he liked a piece he would practice it a lot even if it was difficult, Chopin's being his favorites to play. He started to get into video game music around this time and would record the music and then play them on the piano. Many of the tracks he played on his piano were songs from a record that was played to him as an unborn child.^[3]

In 1993 Ichinose started working for Game Freak part-time to study programming and get qualifications. His programming didn't have much progress as he was making music instead. He began making music for Pokémon Gold and Silver and has stayed on the sound team since. When looking for people to help make music at Game Freak, Ichinose and Junichi Masuda, who is the director of the Pokémon games as well as working as a composer for the games, approach people familiar with music and ask them to produce something.^[3]

The TV anime for Pokémon uses the tracks from the video games but expands on it with an orchestral arrangement. For the games the sound team has to work using their imaginations if the game is still being produced but if it is produced, they play through the game to get inspiration for the music.^[3] For the sounds of Pokémon Game Freak bans the use of animal based sounds due to animals not existing in the Pokémon world. The sound department used a new specialized program during the development of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, called PokeSynth. This gives nuances to Pokémon cries.^[4] High tunes are more often used for the games as lower tunes didn't come out of the game speakers as well as high tunes did. Ichinose often gets ideas for the melody of songs when he is not in work and not under any work related pressure. "Input music" is used in the music production for the games which leads to not favoring harmonic concepts and musical compositions. This makes the orchestral arrangement for the anime unable to be a 1-1 recreation of the music in the video games.^[3]