Dog Ear Records is a music production company and

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

founded by composer

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Joh ...

in November 2006. The company publishes video game soundtracks and original albums on disc and digitally through

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. The website includes community features including a bilingual blog, YouTube channel, radio program and information related to live performances taking place in the Tokyo area.

Overview

The company is based in the Meguro area of the city of

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. In February 2007, the "DERBLOG" weblog launched, reporting on the company's releases and live events. In October, of the same year, an online radio program called "Inu Mimi Radio" began, hosted by Uematsu. The show invited guests including participants of

The Black Mages The Black Mages were a Japanese instrumental rock band formed in 2002 by Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui and Tsuyoshi Sekito, who were three video game composers for Square and Square Enix. The band arranged Uematsu's ''Final Fantasy'' video game ...

concert series, including

Kenichiro Fukui is a Japanese video game music, video game composer and electronic rock musician. Before working at Square Enix, he was employed at Konami. He was also an arranger and a keyboardist in the band The Black Mages. Additionally, Fukui arranged Angela ...

, Michio Okamiya, and Arata Hanyuda. The first Dog Ear Records live showcase took place November 24, 2008, and featured Keita Egusa, a pianist whose album "KALAYCILAR" was published by the record label.

History

The first international event Dog Ear Records participated in took place October 20, 2007, in Stockholm, Sweden. Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy featured selections from Uematsu's music from the

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

series performed by the

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra ( or , literal translations, "Royal Philharmonic" or "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra") is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm. Its principal venue is the Konserthuset. History The orchestra was foun ...

. Shortly thereafter, the company organized a live event on November 19 titled "Microsoft Presents 'Orchestral Pieces from LOST ODYSSEY & BLUE DRAGON'" taking place at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo. In March 2008, Dog Ear Records announced the release of the album THE BLACK MAGES III Darkness and Starlight. A live concert took place at the Yokohama Blitz in August. The same month, the company began international digital releases via the iTunes Store.

Staff

*Nobuo Uematsu *Hiroki Ogawa *Itsuki Iwasa *Tsutomu Narita *Michio Okamiya

Discography

2006 *'' Blue Dragon'' 2007 *''Anata wo Yurusanai'' *''

Lost Odyssey ''Lost Odyssey'' is a role-playing video game developed by Mistwalker and Feelplus and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It was released in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in western territories. The story follows Kaim, one of a sel ...

'' 2008 *''The Black Mages III - Darkness and Starlight'' *''KALAYCILAR'' *''saru monkey breaks'' 2009 *''

Lord of Vermilion is an arcade-based fantasy collectible card game developed by Think Garage and distributed by Square Enix in which players control combat cards on an arcade play surface. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy team's Arcana Stones and ...

'' *'' Sakura Note: Ima ni Tsunagaru Mirai'' 2010 *''

Xenoblade Chronicles ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. The series began with the original '' Xenoblade Chronicles'' game, published for the Wii in 2010 in Japan, and released in ...

'' 2011 *''

The Last Story is an action role-playing game developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released in Japan in January 2011, Europe in February 2012 and North America by Xseed Games in August 2012. ''The Last St ...

'' *''

Earthbound Papas The Earthbound Papas are a Japanese progressive rock/metal band performing songs and interpretations of music from video games, notably including the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Nobuo Uematsu, the acclaimed composer of music in the ''Final Fanta ...

: Octave Theory'' 2012 *''

Fantasy Life is a 2012 role-playing life simulation game developed and published by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was originally released in Japan in 2012, with Nintendo releasing the game internationally in 2014. The game was written and produce ...

'' 2013 *''

: Dancing Dad''

References

External links

* Japanese record labels Record labels established in 2006 {{record-label-stub