Here's some awesome news for all you kt2 fans out there.  He recently put three of his albums on Last.fm so they're now available for FREE download in mp3 format.  You can check the announcement over at his official site.  He put up No Reality, For you... from here the edge, and Abandoner.

Funny thing about this is I don't even check his site often.  The only reason I knew he was on Last.fm is because he sent me a friend invite.  I thought it was somebody playing a joke at first but yeah.. it's him.  We talked a little bit and I can tell you that he's currently working on at least one project coming out later this year, he composed track 11 of this CD (which is his latest work), and he was not influenced by either Angelo Badalamenti or Akira Yamaoka.  Though he does agree that his Lost Child music sounds a lot like Yamaoka.

http://www.last.fm/music/kt2

-Mike

Cool, thanks for the news! kt2 is definitely one of the coolest composers out there, I love all his stuff. Very much looking forward to new stuff by him. Back when I still had a Last.fm profile I was the top listener of kt2, with 1100+ plays.

I kind of guessed that already... People tend to lump Yamaoka and kt2 together because they both sound like nothing else in VGMdom, and have certain resemblances with each other, but I can easily tell their styles apart, and I love them both to death (although I slightly favour Yamaoka... His stuff just cuts deeper and is a little sharper to the touch). As I recall, I think kt2's major influences are DJ Shadow and other such trip-hoppy electronica artists (I think I read it on his site). Badalamenti, on the other hand, is from another school altogether, much more jazzy than the Japanese guys (but equally awesome, and with a more mature, richer sound - the guy is in his late 60s, after all).

BTW, if you get a chance to talk to kt2 again, would you mind asking him his real name? If he's OK with revealing, that is. I've always wondered about that, why he doesn't use his real name like most Japanese VGM composers.

This is awesome, but is anyone else having trouble downloading these? I've never used last.fm before so I don't know if this is normal, but my downloads keep suddenly cutting out in the middle, saying they're done when they're not. Kinda frustrating.

Thanks for the heads-up! I'm having the same problem downloading them as Vaeran mentioned however... are they available elsewhere?

thanks!
first time im hearing from this guy. been listening to his stuff and "no reality" is my favorite work so far. i had no problems downloading, worked fine yesterday.

I actually got an answer to this question.  He told me that he doesn't use his real name because he uses it for "other works" that he does.  I'll try to dig a little deeper soon.

Very interesting though.  Watch him turn out to be Uematsu or something, haha.

-Mike

kt2 is a chic.

Someone's gotta interview this cat, now!

Everyone's "other job" in Japan is the fuzoku biz, so maybe it's to protect that secret porn star identity

Got an answer on this question too.  He told me that he uses his real name for his "other work" except music, and that he can't answer any further than that.

I think Carl's right.  kt2 is most likely a porn star.

-Mike

so its a "he"?

not interested

Apart from last.fm's weird download-aborting quirk, I'm a happy clam.  Then again, I've been in love with kt2's stuff since I found out about History Repeats Itself...

No, it's a she.  We're "friends" on myspace and her sex is female.

good to know!

Sigh.

I've been trying to download these on and off for weeks now, and I absolutely cannot get it to stop aborting the downloads.  Could someone who successfully grabbed them do me a big favor and throw a .rar up on Rapidshare or something? Thanks.

here is one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/93065637/No … k.rar.html

Awesome, thanks!

another:

http://rapidshare.com/files/97380329/Fo … e.rar.html

thanks

no problem.

this is the last one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/101906077/A … k.rar.html

thats all that was up.

He's awesome.  Unless I've got the gender wrong...

One was posted late last week.

http://tinyurl.com/3jpx98

A quite interesting, if somewhat dry, interview. I think the sophistication of his/her music shines through in this interview. I was also surprised to see the question about the composition "Tower", this awesome track is also one of my absolute favourites (could actually be the single track I listened the most to last summer - it is in my mind now forever linked with the feel of a cool, rainy Swedish summer).

I really like what he/she says about the "vertical aspects" of the music, like

I think tracks like the aforementioned "Tower" are great examples of the more "vertical" way of composition, and how great it can sound when done by someone capable of it. Another great example by kt2 is "Fact of Life" from Lost Child - Infinia. And indeed, it is a very rare sound in Japanese VGM. We need more stuff like this.

Finally, I find the comment about "a culture of conformity" in Japanese VGM to be interesting. Its ironic (but maybe not so surprising) that kt2 and Akira Yamaoka work in somewhat similar music styles/genres, and those two are basically the only ones I've heard criticize J-VGM from the inside...

Anyway, thanks for the interview! I wish it had been a little longer with a few different questions, but great work nonetheless.

oh, thats cool. thanks for the link!

ive been listening to kt2s stuff mostly on quiet evenings, whenever i want to calm down a bit. i wish he/she could compose for a game more accessible to the west. im curious on how well the work melts into context.

Just curious, has anyone heard anything about this? The year is drawing to a close, and I've heard nothing about it yet. But with such an obscure artist, it wouldn't surprise me if it slips under the radar (at least my radar).

Posted on kt2's website at 2008/12/26:

He will be composing the music of a game called At The End of Eternity (永遠の終わりに by tama-soft).

Edit: Composed. Game was released on that day.

A couple movies are on youtube -- the same tracks as on the samples page.

Wow those sound great!  They sound a little different than his usual stuff but they still have that signature kt2 feel to them.  Here's hoping for a soundtrack release!

-Mike

Thanks for the news, layzee! This made my day.

Definitely. It feels like a natural evolution and maturation of his style. Much lighter in tone and more focus on the piano, but it still sounds fantastic to my ears (I especially like the sample called "BGM1").

Can't wait to hear this in full!

In case anyone is interested, here's what the tracklist would look like if there was an officially released soundtrack (which there does not appear to be).

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 … dtrack.png

Which (understandably) would be exactly how I would describe the whole soundtrack, so don't expect to hear any horrifying tracks like "Trespass", the sad desperateness of "Determination", the depressiveness of "Deeds Not Words" nor the initially haunting menace yet ultimately cool "Yes Master".

Anyway yeah, mostly cheerful laid-back "peaceful remote village" type music here.

Arghh! If there's no soundtrack release, I really hope someone gets around to ripping and sharing the music... This might be my most anticipated VGM of 2009, I'm desperate for some new kt2.