Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

i knew sakamoto primarily as a pianist and composer for a long time before diving into his y.m.o. and early solo work. have never heard anything of his from the 90s tho, enjoying the dive.

he really was a special piano player, incredibly dynamic with unique voicings that find a midpoint between evans and cage

What a talent, to be able to play like that and not have to do it, the experimentation and the pop stuff from so early on, jeez.

Extract from a 'Sound on Sound' interview from 1998, I'd love to know where this place was/is.

"This time I'm interviewing Sakamoto in one of the most unusual hotels I've ever set foot in. He seems to have a taste for the out-of-the-ordinary, whether in music or in hotels, but this takes some beating. It's located in West London, and is so private that there's no signposting outside it. Inside, it's composed of rectangular shapes painted white, with interior design in an ultra-sparse, minimalistic style somewhere between Zen and '60s chic. The corridors are laced with identical white panels as far as the eye can see, the only thing indicating that these panels are actually doors being a small button on each, with a tiny red light and a keyhole."

This is a p arresting version of one of his best known singles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efpU91sflaI

yes, that one is incredible. sounds like a video game soundtrack version of ligeti's music ricercata, or something

lovely video by Dolby upthread.
had never heard of RS until Dolby worked with him, so was really nice to find out the backstory to 'fieldwork' which is still one of my fave dolby singles.

the bit in that video that I liked was him saying you could play something for him and he could play it back perfectly by ear. I've actually heard that a few times about him, which I think is a skill very few musicians possess.

Because of recent searches, YT is throwing RS suggestions at me and I came across this installation piece called 'Plankton', a lovely close-up, detailed sound design/ambient thing.

― MaresNest, Wednesday, April 5, 2023 12:51 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I thought you may have been referring to the Sketch Show tune called "Plankton", which RS actually isn't on...before finding out he actually did do an hourlong piece for an installation. this guy just has so much out there. his Discogs page has nearly 300 entries on it. I like that quote from The Sheltering Sky that's on async, about how life seems limitless because we don't know when we will die...indeed, Sakamoto's catalogue seems limitless, there's always so much more to hear. How many people out there actually know every single one of his solo albums and soundtracks?

budman!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl5fBJ2j3x0

I kinda love how the concept of 'selling out' just doesn't seem to exist in the music community in Japan.

There are acres and acres of commercials with YMO together and separately, selling all sorts of things, I wonder if it started in the bubble or if it's always been so.

XXP - it is rather lovely too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEt2YzR0zEk

bizarre to see him actually drinking beer in the commercial. in America you can't do that...you can open the bottles and clink the glasses but you can't actually drink out of them

I realise I'm doing the exact same thing as when Yukihiro passed, diving into the back catalogue, watching documentaries and YT clips, I'm feeling sad as hell, but (as frogbs points out) how fucking glorious is it to have this seemingly endless ocean of music to dive into?

speaking of YMO commercials I came across this recently, not sure what the point of this commercial was except to make people question their sexuality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m4ZCWqn13o

hot

going down the rabbit hole of wacky 80s/90s peak economic bubble ads that sakamoto seemingly did a thousand of. it's such a joy to watch the man, he has such a natural charisma and warmth!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IRt3Kpinb0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEnMp8Y8_FY

(tried listening to async, my favourite album ever, today - I can't. there's dark and strange magic coursing through those songs and it's going to take a while to be able to approach them after his passing.)

wow adelic penguins is so good

Every time I see this thread bumped I fear I'm going to read that he's died.

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, April 3, 2015 12:32 AM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

say it ain't so Sakamoto

全くありません。人生でプログレが好きになったことも影響を受けたこともありません。

Not at all. I’ve never in my life liked prog rock and I’ve never been influenced by it either.#skmtnews #ryuichisakamoto #坂本龍一 #twelve

— ryuichi sakamoto (@ryuichisakamoto) March 22, 2023

― frogbs, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 1:57 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not entirely Ryuichi-related, but in addition to having that fear yet again this week, one of the odder things about the world we live in is that celebrities are tweeting literally up to the day before they die and then, boom, they're gone. Roger Ebert was reviewing movies before he announced he was in the final stages (10 years ago this week, actually), David Crosby was grading the joints his Twitter followers rolled literally the day before he died -- and here you have Sakamoto, presumably on his death bed, telling some schmo that, no, he's never been into prog at all and WTF is that question, dude.

It's a strange sensation as a fan.

I think it's nice? May we all squeeze every last drop out of life.

agree with this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsH_UBptm-U

timeless

The amazing thing about that piano version of Riot in Lagos is that it makes the groove more prominent, and in turn, the overall Afrobeat/Fela feel of the piece. I love it – it was the only version available in Spotify for a long time, and got so used to it.

I think it's nice? May we all squeeze every last drop out of life.

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, April 6, 2023 11:25 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh I agree -- I mean, that's exactly what the folks I cited did. It's just sudden is all. I mean, as I posted, I was dreading Sakamoto's passing for 8 years. But I think when you see people doing interviews and shooting the bull with fans it can be surprising to then learn they've passed.

The amazing thing about that piano version of Riot in Lagos is that it makes the groove more prominent, and in turn, the overall Afrobeat/Fela feel of the piece.

Yes! BTW, I'm assuming on at least this cut there are multiple Sakamotos "playing the piano" (ie, overdubs) as there are things happening that require four hands.

well my Youtube recs are like 50% Sakamoto now, which rules. check this shit out, how awesome is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a8xV9xOHqA

after listening to all of his '80s and '90s "pop" albums in a row i came out with smoochy as my favorite. it reminds me of the chill-out-ier corners of something like beaucoup fish

Since people are rediscovering his early 90s stuff I'm gonna say don't sleep on Technodon. I think its an album that works much better in the context of their other 90s releases instead of what YMO had done a decade ago. It's actually really good. In retrospect its super cool that such a high profile reunion happened and they decided to take it in a direction that conceptually was unlike anything they did in their original incarnation. Feel like it would be regarded a lot differently if it didn't have the YMO name (which technically, it didn't!)

If nothing else the track "Nostalgia" is a excellent, haunting Sakamoto piece - if you took it out of context and put it on a RS mixtape I don't think anyone would guess what it was actually from. Initially I thought it was funny that a YMO reunion would have a track called "Nostalgia" that sounded nothing at all like YMO, but I guess it is kinda similar to those Prologue/Epilogue pieces on Technodelic. Actually I think most tracks here would be neat highlights on mixtapes. But people don't like the album.

The latest ep of Gilles Peterson's radio show predictably has a Sakamoto tribute and the first two tracks they play are an orchestral "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" followed by "You're Friend To Me" and that's a great illustration of the "wait, this is the SAME GUY?" aspect discussed itt.

oh wow turns out i love technodon, thank you frogbs, nobody ever has anything good to say about this record yet it rules

I never knew there was a third version of "Forbidden Colours" - a live recording by RS that Sylvian re-recorded his vocals for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMjtAP2_j9E

xpost

count me in as another Technodon lover (my fav YMO album in fact)!

Technodon is great. I encountered the YMO albums in a fairly random order, so it never felt like an outlier (especially given the wild swings across their original run). It's probably got the strongest Kraftwerk influence of any of their LPs? with shades of LFO's Frequencies in places too.

I think there's always been a continuity between what they're doing in and out of the band at any one time. I wish they'd done a final LP in the 00s drawing on all the glitch/IDM stuff they were doing separately, but I guess we have the Londonymo / Gijonymo live albums for that (which "claim" a lot of Sketch Show / Sakamoto solo stuff under the YMO banner).

I think maybe it's an outlier in terms of melody, it has none of the bright, sunny stuff they're known for. If you dig it I highly recommend Hosono's Medicine Compilation (which is not actually a compilation).

I too wish they'd done one more album, in fact in 2007-2008 it really looked like something was in the works, as they had released a few singles under the HASYMO name. Maybe the whole idea of getting back together, reopening the YMO name, and possibly touring again was a bit overwhelming. I'm kinda bummed we only got the 2 1/2 Sketch Show albums - I've really grown to appreciate those a lot

A brilliant piece of writing and remembering here https://t.co/hheEJRAovD

— Fielding Hope (@fieldinghope) April 14, 2023

“Sakamoto passed away after several years of preparation.
I heard that he passed away quietly, with no regrets for himself or his family.
After knowing that, I feel at ease.”
Haruomi Hosono

;_;

slightly off topic but does anyone else get a slight ick from Toop and his writing? parlayed a leechy career in journalism (is there any other kind?) into very dull experimental music. the opening line of his piece on Ryuichi:
'That left unsaid and at the centre of us, unspeakable silence. Turbulent thoughts but faltering words, a very specific form of silence' - not even grad school shit. leave us to grieve Ryuichi without this bullshit poetry!

Ha ha -- I get what you're saying but I like Toop and think he generally includes enough specifics and substance to warrant (or at least mitigate) the florid poesy. I have also found that Sakamoto's passing seemed to hit a lot of people surprisingly hard -- and not just the friend of mine who literally called me in tears when he found out!

this track here always makes me really emotional. it's not even on the Ongaku Zukan LP proper, you have to get the original with the bonus 12" to get it (or just get the CD). the way the icy synths come in 2/3rds of the way and just completely change the tune always makes me get chills. that's the kind of trick groups like Underworld and Orbital used to pull off in the 90's. wouldn't be surprised to find out it's just a chill version of one of his advertising jingles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I59rqjeSUo

I went to see Suga last night with my partner, and I was surprised by a nice tribute to Sakamoto when they played a personal recording of Suga with Sakamoto at what appeared to be his home. Sakamoto plays something on the piano while Suga looks on - he then smiles at the camera, gets up and the two share a warm embrace.

It was a very young crowd that seemed concentrated around the teens and early 20's, and several fans behind us didn't even know Sakamoto had died. I forgot the two collaborated, and it seemed to emphasize the impact these cross-generational collaborations can have on both sides of the equation - I got the impression most of the fans probably knew Sakamoto only through Suga, i.e. at minimum their collaboration has become their gateway to him, and it was clear Suga had a tremendous amount of respect for Sakamoto's work.

what a wonderful song, frogbs -- i had no idea Replica and マ・メール・ロワ after it were bonus tracks on Ongaku Zukan! i've listened to that record 10000 times and always thought it closed so strongly and poignantly with the children's choir and koto of マ・メール・ロワ.

I've been listening to Esperanto this morning. How on earth was this made in 1985? I can't think of many albums that sound as ahead of their time as this.

YT is still bringing up Sakamoto (and Takahashi) things for me to check out, I keep happily clicking, this is lovely...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxD4141Pyl0

What a fantastic arrangement! It nearly brought tears to my eyes. I wonder if a recording is available on CD.

Ryuichi’s Last Playlist.

We would like to share the playlist that Ryuichi had been privately compiling to be played at his own funeral to accompany his passing. He truly was with music until the very end.

- skmt managementhttps://t.co/QPeSnthq9p pic.twitter.com/lK7B2ltUM9

— ryuichi sakamoto (@ryuichisakamoto) May 15, 2023

Spooky to look at the "date added" column. Seems he was putting it together right on Spotify (mostly last June) and they just now set it to public.

Here's a nice compilation of various piano cameos on his Sound Street show on NHK from 1982-85

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4tS8KJv5Ss

He breaks into the sequencer riff of DAF's El Que for a sec at one point, which is mad.

A lengthy tribute collection came out recently:

https://microambientmusic.bandcamp.com/album/all-micro-ambient-music-5-disc-set

And there's a forthcoming live event that will be streamed as well:

https://microambientmusic.peatix.com/

Details:

AUG 24
In Memoriam Ryuichi Sakamoto Micro Ambient Music 'Improvisation for serenity'
(Thu) 18:00 (8 days) | online | By RITTOR BASE

Event details
In memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away in March, a compilation album entitled "Micro Ambient Music" was released on 13 July on bandcamp. Although the reputation of Ryuichi tends to be biased towards his work with YMO and in the field of film music, it is also true that the true value of his ideas and music can be found in his works from the 21st century onwards. This compilation album is a total of 41 musicians from Japan and abroad who were closely associated with Ryuichi in his later years. The sound of the album is a total of 3 hours 56 minutes of music.

The bandcamp distribution is limited to 31 October, but in order to bring the sound to as many listeners as possible, it has been decided that live performances will be held by the Tokyo-based musicians who participated in this work over two days from 24-25 August. Three groups each day, six artists in total, will perform with a theme of 'Improvisation for serenity'. Duos performing in unusual combinations. After the performance, there will be an after-talk by the participating musicians, so don't miss it.

The part of the proceeds will be donated to Trees for Sakamoto.

Participating artists
24 Aug (Thu)
Tetuzi Akiyama Tomoyoshi Date
Ko Ishikawa Chihei Hatakeyama
Sachiko M Kazuya Matsumoto
Otomo Yoshihide (after-talk only)

Friday 25 August
Tomotsugu Nakamura Sawako
Yui Onodera Ken Ikeda
Toshimaru Nakamura Yumiko Tanaka (photo: asanao Matsumoto)　

Takashi Kokubo (ambient sound provided during live transitions on both days)

＜Ryuichi Sakamoto Micro Ambient Music "Improvisation for serenity" in memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Date: 24 (Thu) - 25 (Fri) August 2023, both days open 17:45 start 18:00
Venue: Ochanomizu RITTORE BASE
　Ochanomizu Christian Centre B1, 2-1 Kanda Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062
　Venue map
　(2 min walk from Ochanomizu Station on JR Chuo/Sobu Line, 3 min walk from Ochanomizu Station on Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, 3 min walk from B1 exit of Shin-Ochanomizu Station on Chiyoda Line)
■Attendance ticket at the venue: General/4,400 yen, Students/3,300 yen (archived viewing of the two days is also available).
Capacity: 30 people on both days. Doors open 15 minutes before the start of the performance and people enter in order of ticket number.
Tickets to watch the archived broadcast: ¥3,300 for adults, ¥2,200 for students (archived viewing of the two days is available).
Archived viewing deadline: 31 August 2023, 23:00.

(Timetable)
Thursday, 24 August
18:00 - 18:35 Tetuzi Akiyama + Tomoyoshi Date
18:45 - 19:20 Ko Ishikawa + Chihei Hatakeyama
19:30 - 20:05 Sachiko M + Kazuya Matsumoto
20:05 - After Talk: Otomo Yoshihide + Date Hakkin "Ryuichi Sakamoto's Music after 2000".
Friday 25 August
18:00 - 18:35 Tomotsugu Nakamura + Sawako
18:45 - 19:20 Yui Onodera + Ken Ikeda
19:30 - 20:05 Yumiko Tanaka + Toshimaru Nakamura
20:05 - After Talk: Yumiko Tanaka + Hiji Hatakeyama + Hakkin Date "On Japanese and Western music, improvisation and notation".

(Quick check confirms the streaming price is about $23 so I'd say that was an excellent deal.)