Pokeani credits PSM to a Pokémon Symphonic Orchestra; but it's not in the credits of the TV OP - which instead states "arrangement & all instruments: Kazumi Mitome" - in English. The Battle Frontier CD states essentially the same thing for the other PSM: "演奏・編曲：三留一純". Then again, maybe they're hinting to us that the instruments are synth... [I personally find the strings part of PSM a little unconvincing.] (And that still leaves the puzzle of the chorus.) But I'm pretty sure I've seen an orchestra in one of those "Making of ..." videos.I do think that an in-house orchestra performs the orchestral pieces - the question is, which company, if at all, does this orchestra belong to? Are they mostly professional musicians, or mostly amateurs?
Certainly, composers might perform one part of their own piece. Joe Hisaishi, of Studio Ghibli, performs the piano part of many of his pieces. But composers certainly can't perform all the parts - that would be quite troublesome.
Some recurring names in Pokémon music:
- 田中宏和 Tanaka Hirokazu (never credited in kanji though...) - composed most of the theme songs, and arranged many of them.
- 戸田昭吾 Toda Akihito - wrote the lyrics for many songs.
- 三留一純 Mitome Kazumi - arranged PSM, composed soko-ni sora-ga aru kara, and also arranged the music box versions of soko-ni sora-ga aru kara and [/i]boku-no best friend-e[/i].
- 恩田直幸 Onda Naoyuki - performed the piano part of boku-no best friend-e, though the composer there was Tanaka Hirokazu; later, he does the arrangement for soko-ni sora-ga aru kara, Smile, Onda Naoyuki later does the arrangement for soko-ni sora-ga aru kara, ippai summer.
[*] 斉藤裕二 (齋藤 as listed on the company website, also spelt 斎藤) Saitō Yūji - music producer for all 8 movies. He is always listed as belonging to イマジン - Imagine. Aha, bingo! Miyazaki Shinji is an employee of this company. And their major customers include TV Tokyo and Shōgakukan Productions...
[*] 宮崎慎二 Miyazaki Shinji - composer for Pokémon anime, an employee of Imagine (see above)
And... from the Imagine website, there is a link to Koike Strings, a strings group. And, if you look at their recording diary, the entry for June 11, 2005 is... movie 8. In fact... looking through their recording diary brings up a few other artists and shows I recognise...
Considering that the Japanese are generally quite meticulous when it comes to crediting people (music albums list down who played what instrument on a per track basis!) - this is highly unusual.
But... looking at some of the older singles I have, I find some slightly more detailed credits... For 風といっしょに kaze-to issho-ni:
コーラス：ポケモンキッズ
音羽ゆりかご会 (by the courtesy of Sony Records)
The first line tells us that the chorus is by Pokémon Kids. The second line mentions a "Otowa Yurikago-Kai" - a singing school for children - which apparently is so well known it has a Japanese Wikipedi article.
And for ぼくのベストフレンドへ boku-no best friend-e:
トラック・プログラミング：たなかひろかず
シンセサイザー・プログラミング：山崎哲雄
E.ギター：古川望
Track Programming: Tanaka Hirokazu
Synthesiser Programming: Yamazaki Tetsuo
Electric Guitar: Furukawa Nozomi
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