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The music of Trails: Falcom Sound Team jdk

Every Trails score carries the same byline, a team name Falcom has used since 1990, behind which individual composers officially do not exist.

Falcom's music is credited, always and only, to Falcom Sound Team jdk, a unit name in use since around 1990, carried over from the era of Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa's Dragon Slayer scores. The company's long-standing policy is that individual track credits are not published: who wrote which piece of a Trails soundtrack is a matter of fan reconstruction, leaks and inference rather than liner notes, and this Library follows the documented outline rather than the guesswork. What is on the record for the Trails era: the in-house core across the Sky, Crossbell and Cold Steel scores is Hayato Sonoda and Takahiro Unisuga, whose names appear in soundtrack metadata as the Sound Team's members.

Around that core, Falcom built a ring of long-term contractors. Arranger Yukihiro Jindo has worked with the company since 2003, first on Ys VI, and his orchestral arrangements define the sound of the series' biggest scenes and of the Vita Evolution editions' re-arranged scores. From the later Cold Steel games onward, Mitsuo Singa joined as contractor and as the musical director of the reformed jdk BAND, Falcom's live house band, which performs the catalogue in concert. The continuity is the point: the Gagharv trilogy's scores were led by Atsushi Shirakawa, who left Falcom and became, as Tenmon, the composer for Makoto Shinkai's films, and the Sky trilogy's pastoral sound wears a documented debt to Joe Hisaishi's Castle in the Sky. One credit, four decades, and a catalogue fans treat as a single composer with many hands.

Sora no Kiseki Original Soundtrack album cover — **THE SOUND TEAM**The original Sora no Kiseki soundtrack: Falcom Sound Team jdk writes every note in-house, as it has for decades.

THE HANDS BEHIND THE CREDIT

As documented

Hayato Sonoda

Sound Team jdk's senior in-house composer of the Trails era, the pastoral Sky sound and two decades of field, town and battle themes.

Takahiro Unisuga

The other in-house pillar: joined Falcom in the Xanadu Next era and grew to co-lead the Cold Steel and Daybreak scores.

Yukihiro Jindo · contractor

Arranger since 2003 (Ys VI); the orchestral voice of the series' climaxes and the Evolution editions.

Mitsuo Singa · contractor

Composer-arranger from the later Cold Steel era, and director of the modern jdk BAND's live performances.

The music of Trails: Falcom Sound Team jdk

THE HANDS BEHIND THE CREDIT

THE FIRST WORD