Kevin Penkin

Kevin Penkin (born 22 May 1992[2]) is a British-Australian composer, primarily for video games and anime. He is best known for composing the musical score of Made in Abyss (2017), which won the Best Score at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards.[3]

Kevin Penkin
Born (1992-05-22) 22 May 1992
United Kingdom[1]
OriginPerth, Western Australia
Occupation(s)Composer
Years active2011–present
Websitekpenkmusic.com

Biography

Kevin Penkin grew up in Perth, Western Australia.[4] Penkin's interest in game music came from listening to the "Phendrana Drifts" theme from Metroid Prime;[4] in a 2012 interview, he referred to the theme's electronic synths and acoustic instruments as "absolute bliss".[4]

Penkin began his career with composition credits in the 2011 short films Play Lunch and The Adventures of Chipman and Biscuit Boy.[4] In the same year, Penkin composed the soundtrack of the video game Jūzaengi: Engetsu Sangokuden (十三支演義~偃月三国伝~); this soundtrack represented Penkin's first collaboration with Nobuo Uematsu.[4] Penkin has continued to collaborate with Uematsu in titles such as Norn9 and Defender’s Quest II: Mists of Ruin.[5]

In 2015, Penkin graduated from the Royal College of Music with a master's degree in Composition for Screen.[6]

In 2016, Penkin collaborated with Kinema Citrus on the Norn9 anime and the Under the Dog original video animation soundtracks.[7] Penkin's relationship with Kinema Citrus continued through to 2017 for the soundtrack of Made in Abyss,[7] winning the 2017 Crunchyroll Anime Award for Best Score with it.[3] In 2018, Penkin composed the score for the video game Florence.[8] Penkin composed the music for Kinema Citrus' anime adaptation of The Rising of the Shield Hero and NetEase's VR game Nostos in 2019.[9] He composed the score for the 2020 anime adaptation of the South Korean webtoon Tower of God.[10] Penkin was working with artist Takashi Murakami on the sequel to the movie Jellyfish Eyes, but the project was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]

Penkin lived in the United Kingdom for some time,[7] but now lives in Australia.[12]

Works

Video games
Year Title Notes
2011 Jūzaengi: Engetsu Sangokuden with Nobuo Uematsu
2012 Norn9 with Nobuo Uematsu
Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten
2013 Deemo composed "I Race the Dawn"
2015 Implosion: Never Lose Hope composed cutscenes music
2017 Kieru[7]
2018 Florence nominated at the 15th British Academy Game Awards for music
2019 Nostos
Rebel Cops with Ben Matthews
2020 Necrobarista[13][14]
TBA Defender's Quest II: Mists of Ruin with Nobuo Uematsu[15]

Anime
Year Title Notes
2016 Norn9
Under the Dog OVA
2017 Made in Abyss won Crunchyroll Anime Award for Best Score 2017
2019 The Rising of the Shield Hero nominated for Crunchyroll Anime Award for Best Score 2019
2020 Tower of God nominated for Crunchyroll Anime Award for Best Score 2020
2021 Eden Netflix Original Anime

Movies
Year Title
2018 Implosion: ZERO_DAY
2019 Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn
Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight
2020 Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul

References
  1. Penkin, Kevin. "Kevin Penkin Long Interview". Made in Abyss (Interview) (in Japanese). Interviewed by Shimpei Yamashita; Hiromitsu Iijima. Kadokawa Corporation. (republished by Sentai Filmworks)
  2. Penkin, Kevin (21 May 2018). "Apparently in some places in the world I'm already 26. That's a laugh". Twitter. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  3. Trumbore, Dave (26 February 2018). "Crunchyroll Anime Awards Winners Revealed: Who Took Home the Big Prize?". Collider. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  4. Greening, Chris (27 February 2014). "Kevin Penkin Interview: Writing Soundtracks with Nobuo". VGMO -Video Game Music Online-. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  5. Doucet, Lars. "Nobuo Uematsu to work on Defender's Quest 2". Fortress of Doors. Doucet, Lars. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  6. "Biography". Kevin Penkin. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  7. May, Callum (4 October 2017). "Interview: Made in Abyss Composer Kevin Penkin". Anime News Network. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  8. Remington, Kate. "Kevin Penkin's Intimate, Conversational Soundtrack For 'Florence'". www.wshu.org. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  9. Penkin, Kevin (2018-08-22). "So, speaking of more to come... honoured to announce I composed the music for my first VR title, @nostosgame Nostos is an VRMMO Sandbox game and the main theme features the incredible singer of Nier Automata, Emi Evans!". @kevinpenkin. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  10. "Crunchyroll Reveals Tower of God Anime's Video, Cast, Staff". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  11. @kevinpenkin (11 July 2020). "ANNOUNCEMENT: I've been working with artist Takashi Murakami on the music for his movie "Jellyfish Eyes 2". Due to Covid-19 the project has been abandoned. Regardless, we worked extremely hard on the music and I hope one day I can share it. It was an honour to work with Murakami" (Tweet). Retrieved 14 July 2020 – via Twitter.
  12. Penkin, Kevin (2019-06-09). "Less than 2 weeks until I call Melbourne my home. Pretty keen." Twitter. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  13. Mejias, Nicole (November 27, 2018). "Composer Kevin Penkin on Symphonic Metal and Flamenco Music Influences in The Rising of the Shield Hero, and More!". Crunchyroll. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  14. "Route 59 Games press kit". necrobarista.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-22. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  15. "Defender's Quest II - Core Team". defendersquest.com. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
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