Kento Masuda

Kento Masuda's work blurs the border between modern and classical music. Though it fits into many genres, his work can be assigned to the avant-garde movement. His pieces are mainly based on piano compositions uniquely interwoven with modern synthesizer sounds.

Kento Masuda was born in 1973 in the Chiba prefecture and started playing piano at the early age of five. When he was twelve, the young talent composed his first piece and just three years later won the 'Yamaha Junior Original Contest'. Soon after he dropped out of school to concentrate on his musical career and won first prize in all the contests he participated in year after year. During this time, Kento often played classical and modern compositions in front of audiences of 10,000 or more and met much success at miscellaneous classical music events.

In 1990, the 17 year old Kento Masuda signed his first recording contract with the video game software company Konami and composed soundtracks for several video games. He also worked with another company which he created radio jingles for. Just a year later he released his first album Wheel of Fortune; it was received with a lot of enthusiasm. This gave Kento the opportunity to work with Lee Shapiro Music, a company which produces music for advertisements and TV media, two years later in New York. While there he refined his mixing and recording skills. It was at this time he started finding inspiration for furthering his career.

After his return to Japan, Kento wrote and produced for different artists and also worked as a support member for several bands. 1998 saw the release of his second album MYOJYOW which he recorded with renowned mastering engineer Bobby Hata, who has worked with such celebrities as Van Halen, Black Sabbath and Nirvana. In spite of his success and the offers from major labels, Kento decided to found his own label Kent on Music, Inc.

Following that Kento grew even more successful; in addition to composing for television studios, advertisers, theater plays and diverse art events he was working on his third album, titled Hands and released in 2003. Two years later another album, Globesounds, followed. It was released by international music label JPMC Records and grew hugely popular in Germany, leading Kento to give an interview at Klassik Radio Hamburg, which garnered him even more fans.

At present Kento Masuda continues to work on new projects, the latest being the music school Hi & Deep which he founded in collaboration with established Japanese indie label Explosion Entertainment. Kento acts as chancellor of the school.