Jun Ishikawa (石川淳Ishikawa Jun, born 1964) is a senior sound composer who formerly worked at HAL Laboratory, and has been one of the main composers of the Kirby series since its debut in 1992. Along with frequent collaborator Hirokazu Ando, Ishikawa has composed many of the classic Kirby songs. He is best known for his energetic, electronic-based compositions.
Ishikawa's artistic influences include Paul Mauriat, Isao Tomita, Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Brian Eno. He enjoys using modular synthesizers in his spare time, but does not utilize them in his game music.[1] Compared to other game composers, Ishikawa is known for being somewhat reclusive; he has recounted running for cover when asked for interviews or photos, though this has changed over time. According to him, his preference for privacy came from his days as a student of film audio, where he was trained to remain hidden from the public eye.[2]
As of April 2023, Jun Ishikawa retired from HAL Laboratory and began working as a freelance composer.[3]
While both Hirokazu Ando and Jun Ishikawa are credited for the music in Kirby's Adventure, Ishikawa stated that he was not personally involved with it in a 2010 interview. This comment, in addition to comments from a 2017 interview, indicate that Ando was solely in charge of the music for Kirby's Adventure.[1][4] The Kirby's Adventure album credits Ando as the composer for every arranged track except "Sparkling March", an arrangement of "Green Greens" from Kirby's Dream Land, meaning that Ishikawa is most likely credited for the compositions that Kirby's Adventure reuses from Kirby's Dream Land.[5]
Ishikawa has a reputation for anecdotes about using everyday objects, such as empty cans and nutrition drink bottles, in order to make a convincing sound.[8] For "Studying the Power Plant", he created the harsh electronic sounds by sticking his reading glasses between the strings of an electric guitar, breaking the glasses in the process.[9]
↑"This may just be my own personal sense of it, but I worked on the songs for the first Kirby game, and Ando-san did the music for the next one, Kirby's Adventure, and those two sounds established the basis for that special Kirby feeling." –Jun Ishikawa (Iwata Asks: Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wayback Machine snapshot))
