Masaru Satoh (sometimes spelled Masaru Sato), was born May 29, 1928. He died at the age of 71 on Dec. 5, 1999. For a major part of his career as a film composer, Masaru Satoh was associated with two of Japan's most internationally renowned cultural icons: Akira Kurosawa and Godzilla (or Gojira, as he is known in Japan).

Born in Rumoi in northern Japan, Satoh trained as a composer and entered the movie industry in 1952 at Toho Studios. Satoh soon became Akira Kurosawa's music director, first working with the legendary director in 1957. His many Kurosawa efforts included Yojimbo, Red Beard and Sanjuro; his last score was for 1999's After the Rain, based on a script by Kurosawa. Satoh's scores for Kurosawa's movies helped make him one of Japan's most widely exposed film composers.

His work on the Godzilla movies however, always stood somewhat in the shadow of Akira Ifukube, who wrote the music for the first Godzilla movie and most of the major titles that followed. In 1966 when Tokyo director Jun Fukuda took over the Godzilla series from original director Ishiro Honda, Fukuda insisted on using his long time friend Masaru Satoh instead of Ifukube to add a lighter touch and raise the tempo of filming, against the wishes of producer Tomoyuki Tanaka.

His work on these movies resulted in the release of soundtrack LPs and CDs of his music that were eventually exported to the United States and Europe, thus giving him far more exposure than virtually any film composer (other than Ifukube) in Japan. Over the course of his career, Satoh wrote the music for over 300 movies.

Mr Bungle covered 2 Satoh selections during their 1996 tour of Australia in support of Disco Volante. They were indicated on setlists only as "Slow Satoh" & "Fast Satoh". The first, "Mesu", was taken from the movie of the same name which translates to "Scalpel". "Mesu", a japanese black & white thriller, was released in 1974 & was directed by Masahisa Sadanaga.

The second "Yaju toshi" was also taken from the movie of the same name which translates to "Beast Capital or "City Of Beasts". "Yaju Toshi", a japanese crime/drama, was released in 1970 & was directed by Jun Fukuda.

Both of these compositions were released on "The Film Music By Masaru Satoh Vol. 9", a series of compilations celebrating Satoh's music.