Ryuichi Sakamoto

2023 - 4 - 3

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Hindu"

World-renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto dies at 71 (The Hindu)

Ryuichi Sakamoto, composed for Hollywood hits such as “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant”, died at the age 71.

“How we make electricity is going to diversify, with fossil fuel and nuclear power declining,” Sakamoto told The Associated Press in an interview in 2012. At his home in New York, he gets electricity from a company that relies on renewables, he said. The statement expressed gratitude to the doctors who had treated him in the U.S. Sakamoto also left his mark as a pacifist and environmental activist. “To his final days, he lived with music,” it said. He was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014.

Ryuichi Sakamoto obituary (The Guardian)

Japanese composer and electronic music pioneer behind the soundtrack for the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.

With the Austrian guitarist and composer Christian Fennesz he recorded Sala Santa Cecilia (2005), Cendre (2007) and Flumina (2011). He and Byrne teamed up to record the single [Psychedelic Afternoon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUuKhMS-Aek) to aid tsunami survivors. Thomas Dolby featured on the pulsating [Field Work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdq-Pn6xPBE) from Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia (1986), the track accompanied by an ingeniously conceived video, while for Neo Geo (1987) Sakamoto enlisted [Iggy Pop](https://www.theguardian.com/music/iggy-pop), Bill Laswell, [Bootsy Collins](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/14/bootsy-collins-funkadelic-funk) and Sly Dunbar. YMO paused their activities in 1984, though the trio continued to collaborate on each other’s solo work, and they reformed to make the album Technodon (1993). He formed a group of musicians called NML (No More Landmines), which featured [Firecracker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkkFST5qrLg), from their 1978 debut album, was itself sampled in Afrika Bambaataa’s Death Mix. Born in Tokyo, Ryuichi was the only child of Keiko (nee Shimomura), a hat designer, and Kazuki Sakomoto, a literary editor. For the opening of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics he provided [El Mar Mediterrani](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4AzXwtfHck). The soundtrack, which won him a Bafta for best film music, contained the Sakamoto/Sylvian composition [Forbidden Colours](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YkHJJi-tc), a vocal version of the film’s main theme, which was a Top 20 hit in Britain. [electronica](https://www.theguardian.com/music/electronicmusic), Sakamoto was able to combine his skills as an academically trained musician with an aptitude for electronic music and an ear for countless musical styles. [Andy Partridge](https://www.theguardian.com/music/xtc) from XTC, and the electrofunk track Riot in Lagos proved inspirational for the likes of Mantronix and Afrikaa Bambaataa. He won an Academy Award (along with his fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su) for his soundtrack to

Listen to a collection of Nokia ringtones composed by Ryuichi ... (Crack Magazine)

Twitter account Tech Product Bangers has compiled Nokia 8800 ringtones and alerts – most of which the late pioneering Japanese musician created.

[A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto: To The Moon and Back ](https://crackmagazine.net/article/album-reviews/to-the-moon-and-back-ryuichi-sakamoto-review/)was released last November to mark the musician’s 70th birthday, featuring reworked versions of his music by artists including Thundercat, Devonté Hynes, Alva Noto and David Sylvian. In addition to his film scores, extensive solo and collaborative releases and output as one third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto created many of the signature mobile phone ringtones and alerts for the Nokia 8800 back in 2005. Please take a listen, some lovely sounds here.”

Ryuichi Sakamoto Shaped the Way Music Sounds Today (GQ Magazine)

A remembrance of the legendary artist and composer, who died last week at 71.

In 2014, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and not long after wrote his late-career masterpiece async in the throes of treatment. I’d wave and he’d return the gesture and a sly grin—and then he was off, headed to the next thing. He said this like it was the natural evolution of things, that inevitably one gives up the obligation of melody and harmony for the ambiguity of texture and tone.

Remembering Ryuichi Sakamoto, a godfather of electronic pop, who ... (WMUK)

Sakamoto, a trailblazing composer and producer who was one of the first musicians to incorporate electronic production into popular songcraft, died last ...

Sakamoto studied classical music before making a name for himself in the pop and electronic genres. Whether you've heard of him or not, he influenced the music you've heard because he was one of the first to incorporate electronic production into popular songs. The composer and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died.

'ஆஸ்கர்' விருதுபெற்ற இசை அமைப்பாளர் காலமானார் (Hindu Tamil)

பிரபல ஜப்பானிய இசை அமைப்பாளர் ருச்சி சகமோட்டோ (Ryuichi Sakamoto). 'த லாஸ்ட் எம்பரர்', 'தி ...

இந்நிலையில் அவருக்கு மீண்டும் புற்றுநோய் பாதிப்பு ஏற்பட்டது. ‘த லாஸ்ட் எம்பரர்’, ‘தி லிட்டில் புத்தா’, ‘த ரெவரன்ட்’ உட்பட பல ஹாலிவுட் படங்களுக்கு இசை அமைத்துள்ளார். Published : 04 Apr 2023 08:54 AM

VOX POPULI: Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto took originality to a whole ... (Asahi Shimbun)

There was a time when we could declare spring had arrived when cosmetic companies started playing commercial songs on TV to promote their new products.

Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture. When he was asked that question years later and the interviewer suggested if the answer could be something like liberally smearing a sheet of white paper with whatever idea popped into his head, Sakamoto said, “That’s not it.” Sakamoto must have made near-superhuman efforts to learn from the past so he wouldn’t inadvertently mimic what someone else had already created. In his book “Shigoto” (Work), film producer Genki Kawamura quotes Sakamoto as saying, “I study hard because I want to create something that is originally mine and avoid imitating something from the past.” Much to the distress of the producer, Sakamoto and Imawano insisted while laughing that they wouldn't have it any other way. Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun.

Ryuichi Sakamoto dies, aged 71 (DJ Mag)

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the legendary Japanese musician and composer who emerged as one-third of the group Yellow Magic Orchestra, has died, aged 71.

Work in the classical music field, and a return to focusing on his early passion of piano music, fed into several solo records over the last two decades. The album saw him link up with the dub producer Dennis Bovell on a number of cuts. Alongside this run of releases, Sakamoto developed a solo career that launched with the release in 1978 of the album 'Thousand Knives Of Ryuichi Sakamoto'. Born in Tokyo in January 1952, Sakamoto took up piano as a child and began to compose his own works at the early age of 10. The group released their self-titled debut album in 1978, which was hugely successful in Japan and elsewhere. The trio formed Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978, having initially all worked together on the recording of Hosono's solo album 'Paraiso' a year earlier.

Ryuichi Sakamoto, a godfather of electronic pop, has died (NPR)

The influential Japanese composer died March 28 from cancer. A wide-ranging musician, the Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder was a synth-pop idol and the ...

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, he collaborated with a wide array of international musicians, including Thomas Dolby, Youssou N'Dour, Iggy Pop, Jaques Morelenbaum, Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) and an especially frequent partner, singer-songwriter and experimental composer David Sylvian. He also wrote the scores for Pedro Almodovar's High Heels in 1991, and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel in 2006 and The Revenant in 2015, among others. But, I am hoping to make music for a little while longer." But I know that I want to make more music. Sakamoto also wrote the movie's score, his first. At his initial meeting with Oshima, Sakamoto told Afrika Bambaataa sampled their "Firecracker" for his "Death Mix (Part 2)." By the time Sakamoto reached university to study composition, his musical life was already following multiple paths simultaneously. As a teenager, he became enamored of the work of Claude Debussy — a composer who himself had been inspired by Asian musical aesthetics, including that of Japan. YMO proved to be an enormous cultural force not just in Japan, but internationally. Sakamoto died on March 28 after a multi-year battle with cancer, according to a statement published on his website Sunday. He began taking piano lessons when he was 6 years old, and later started writing his own music.

Ryuichi Sakamoto

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