Biography

Konishi Yasuharu(小西康陽) (born February 3, 1959), is a Japanese musician, composer and DJ. He was a founding member of Pizzicato Five and the only founding member to stay with the group until its breakup in 2002. Konishi’s current activities are through his company, readymade entertainment, and his record label, 524 records (a play on words from Konishi’s name, as the numbers 524 can be read ko-ni-shi in Japanese using goroawase).

Konishi is a prolific producer, composer, arranger and remixer. He has written, produced and arranged in collaboration with many artists, such as Unicorn, Towa Tei, Havana Exotica, Mari Natsuki, CORNELIUS, Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi, Akiko Wada, and SMAP.

Konishi’s remixes are featured in a far greater range of recordings. In addition to remixing individual tracks for a wide variety of artists for inclusion in their own releases, Konishi has been a prominent figure in several remix-only projects. Some of these have centered on music from cartoons, such as Lupin III and Astro Boy, to the Disney archives. Others have focused on specific artists, such as James Brown and Tom Jones.