For bedroom musicians, Akira Yamaoka's ascent in show business is the stuff of fantasy.
A faceless studio boffin hardly known outside Japan seven years ago, Yamaoka has had his music reworked for a Hollywood blockbuster and adapted for a series of orchestral concerts around the world. He'll appear as a solo guitarist in the first of these performances. Not bad going for someone who writes musical scores for video games.
Silent Hill, the computer game adapted by Christophe Gans, launched Yamaoka's career. All the music in the film is culled from material he wrote for the Silent Hill series. Although the numbers have been rearranged by Jeff Danna (who composed music for films such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse and O), Yamaoka's (above) gothic gloom - from brutal industrial to haunting piano solos - remains intact.
The film's artistic worth may be debatable - it has received lukewarm reviews from cinema-goers and fans of the Silent Hill games - but Yamaoka's sound-track provides a welcome respite.
Danna is credited as director of music, while Yamaoka is listed only as a contributor. But investors made the 38- year-old executive producer of Silent Hill - a gesture that recognises the way his work defines the franchise. In Japan, Silent Hill games soundtracks (above) are sold as music - and Yamaoka is recognised as a bona fide composer.
His rapid progress within the world of digital entertainment propelled Yamaoka to a stage he could barely imagine when he joined Japanese video- game developers Konami as a composer in 1993.
