Evan Call (American composer and arranger based in Japan)

Evan Call (born June 29, 1988) is an American composer and arranger working in Japan. He has composed music for multiple anime series, such as Violet Evergarden, Muv-Luv Alternative and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Call is affiliated with the Japanese agency Miracle Bus and was previously a member of the musical group Elements Garden. Call was born in California, U.S., on June 29, 1988, and grew up in the city of Lincoln. As a teenager, Call was diagnosed with occipital neuralgia and had to take a break from going to school. During that time, he learned to play bluegrass guitar from a local teacher. Call later made a friend in his hometown who taught him about Japanese anime and video games, which prompted him to start composing orchestral music. He joined the choir club when he entered high school. After graduating, Call enrolled at the Berklee College of Music, where he majored in film scoring. After graduating from college, he debated if he should pursue a career in film music in Hollywood. In the end, he decided to move to Japan on a tourist visa to work in the anime and game industry. Three months after his arrival, he was introduced to Junpei Fujita, a music creator working at Elements Garden. After an interview with Fujita and a review of his music portfolio, Call joined Elements Garden. He began composing music in Japan in 2012, where he gained attention for his grand arrangements and impressive symphonic music. After his employment, Call was introduced to Yōta Tsuruoka, a sound director at Kyoto Animation. Alongside Tsuruoka, Call began composing the soundtracks for the anime series Tokyo ESP and Violet Evergarden. Call would continue to compose soundtracks for other anime series and films such as Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. In 2025, Call won a Tokyo Anime Award in the Sound/Performance category, and was nominated for Best Score at the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards for his work on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Call left Elements Garden on June 30, 2016, due to his contract expiring. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Japanese agency Miracle Bus [ja]. Call's musical style is primarily orchestral, often blending classical instrumentation and scoring with European folk elements. This influence is particularly evident in his work on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, where he incorporated traditional instrumentation inspired by an early experience hearing folk music performed with instruments such as the psaltery and hammered dulcimer, which he described as sounding "like magic". He also cited the American folk song "Oh Shenandoah" as an inspiration for its nostalgic, "coming home" feeling, which he reflects in his compositions. "Evan Call" (in Japanese). Tower Records Japan. 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