Jun Senoue

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Jun Senoue (born August 2, 1970 in Matsushima, Miyagi, Miyagi Prefecture, Tōhoku, Japan) is a video game composer and musician, well known for some of his contributions in many Sonic the Hedgehog games. Currently he lives in San Francisco, California, USA.

He started playing the piano at 3, but when he picked up the electric guitar at 15, he began to enter the rock world. He joined and created bands in Japan. In 1993, after graduating from college, he joined Sega as a video game composer, doing sound works for games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 3. His first game he composed was for the Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast. He is most well-known for his compositions and songs in Sonic Adventure, in which some tunes are recycled from his first work. For example, one portion of the Windy Valley zone uses music from Sonic 3D Blast's Green Grove Zone. He has worked the most with Johnny Gioeli, and both are currently in a band entitled Crush 40.

Senoue continued to compose music for the later 3D Sonic games such as Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes featuring music contributed by his band Crush 40. The band itself has also done work for games such as Sega Rally 2 and Formula 1: Beyond the Limit. He did work for the Sonic game Shadow the Hedgehog, which featured the songs "I Am (All Of Me)" (the game's main theme) and "Never Turn Back" (the true ending theme), both by Crush 40. Most recently, Jun and Crush 40 contributed a cover version of Magna Fi's "All Hail Shadow" for the next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog game, as well as an alternative version of the main theme "His World" (featured as a bonus track on the games official soundtrack), and the LB vs. JS remix of "Dreams of an Absolution", Silver the Hedgehog's theme.

In 2005, Jun released an EP with Japanese voice actress Junko Noda entitled "Ready!". The project goes under the name JxJ (Jun x Junko) and is only available in Japan, though copies have made their way stateside through the Jun Senoue fan page.

In 2007, Jun provided three new arrangements for the Japanese console release of Outrun 2 SP, including covers of series staples "Splash Wave" and "Rush a Difficulty", and new original track entitled "Lift You Up!". The songs are also available on the "Outrun 20th Anniversary" box CD set.