Early life Born in Munich, Germany, Hamauzu's mother was a piano teacher and his father, Akimori Hamauzu, an opera singer. He developed an interest in music while in kindergarten. Hamauzu decided to apply for a job at
Square, where
Nobuo Uematsu hired him as a trainee in 1996. Later the same year, he created four tracks for another multi-composer game,
Tobal No. 1. Working with Nakano on these games, Hamauzu admired his musical style, and they became friends; they have later collaborated on several titles. Both the soundtrack and
Coi Vanni Gialli were praised. For
Final Fantasy VII, Hamauzu was the synthesizer programmer for the rendition of
Joseph Haydn's "The Creation", and provided bass vocals in the eight-person chorus for "One-Winged Angel". He spent some time conforming to the music
Kenji Ito had established for the series before realizing that he wanted to use his own unique style. The project introduced him to synthesizer programmer
Ryo Yamazaki, whom he has worked with on most of his subsequent soundtracks. In 2001, Hamauzu and Nakano were chosen to assist Uematsu in the production of the score for the critically acclaimed
Final Fantasy X, based on their ability to create music that was different from Uematsu's style. Hamauzu also contributed the
Piano Collections arranged album of the game, which he described as his most challenging work, and the track named "feel", an arrangement of "Hymn of the Fayth", from the
EP feel/Go dream: Yuna & Tidus. After Uematsu’s departure from Square Enix in 2004, he took over as the lead composer of the company’s music team. He incorporates various styles of music in his compositions, though most of the tune he uses classical and ambient tones in his pieces. In 2005, Hamauzu, Nakano, and the duo Wavelink Zeal (Takayuki and Yuki Iwai) scored
Musashi: Samurai Legend, the sequel to the 1998 title
Brave Fencer Musashi. Hamauzu composed the highly anticipated but critically unsuccessful
Final Fantasy VII follow-up,
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, in 2006. Later the same year, he arranged the
Sailing to the World Piano Score at the request of Mitsuda. The album was well received by fans, and helped confirm Hamauzu's position as a leading piano arranger of video game music. Two tracks from the album were performed at the 2007
Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig. In 2008, he composed the soundtrack to
Sigma Harmonics, with synthesizer programming by
Mitsuto Suzuki rather than Yamazaki. He left Square Enix on January 19, 2010. He went on to form his own studio, Monomusik, which he described as a personal studio that did not include any other composers. Despite leaving Square Enix, Hamauzu was still hired to score various games by the company, including
Final Fantasy XIII-2,
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII,
World of Final Fantasy, and the
high definition version of Final Fantasy X. Outside of the
Final Fantasy series, Hamauzu also wrote music for games such as
Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming,
The Legend of Legacy, and
The Alliance Alive in the 2010s. He contributed arrangements to the
Across the Worlds ~ Chrono Cross Wayô Piano Collection album alongside Akio Noguchi and Mariam Abounnasr. ==Musical style and influences==