Yasuhiro Coba Kobayashi (小林 靖宏 Kobayashi Yasuhiro, born April 29, 1959 in Matsushiro, Nagano) is a Japanese musician, accordionist, composer and arranger. His music has sold over 1,000,000 CDs. Yasuhiro started playing accordion when he was nine. At the age of eighteen he moved to Italy in order to hone his music skills in local educational institution and graduated with honours.
In the April of 1979 Coba won accordionist contest in Japan, in September he did the same in Italy and in the October of 1980 he was recognized the best in Austria. His debut LP was released on Ongaku Center in 1982, but it was not until 1990 that he would make his major label debut on Toshiba-EMI’s Eastworld label, releasing four albums under his own name before adopting the Coba name for all later releases.
Coba creates his own music and makes arrangements for famous compositions. In 1990’s he collaborated with Björk recording her album and touring in more than sixty countries. Throughout his career Coba also worked with Goldie, 808 State, Underworld, Plaid and Howie B..
In 1996 French magazine «Nova Magazine» named «Roots» album the best one. In 2001 Coba was awarded «The Best Composer of the Year» for his soundtracks according to Japanese Award Academy. In 2002 he created music for Pokémon. In 2006 Coba was awarded «Voce d’oro» - the prize of «The most active accordionist in the world».
Yasuhiro Coba Kobayashi released more than 30 albums. He considers that his music doesn’t belong to any genre