Rest In Peace, Mr. Sakamoto

News came earlier today (April 2, 2023) that Ryuichi Sakamoto 坂本龍一 died on March 28 of colon cancer. I (Chris) am saddened by his passing as he was a musician that I have been following since the late 70’s. I still have these vinyl LPs bought 40 years ago.

I loved their electronic dance beats which was fresh and different from Giorgio Moroder’s disco sound which was also new and very popular at that time, for example Donna Summer’s 1977 hit – “I Feel Love”.

In 1983, I saw in London the movie “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” which starred Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie. The soundtrack included his most famous masterpiece “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” which launched his career as a composer of movie soundtrack.

Also included in the soundtrack is a version of the main theme with vocals by David Sylvian, titled “Forbidden Colours”. Sakamoto and Sylvian (who also happens to be one of my favorite artists) continued to collaborate on many projects.

I have included below four versions of this song, the original soundtrack, the version with David Sylvian vocals, a rearranged version with cello from 1996 and a 2022 version remodeled by Electric Youth from a tribute album titled “To the Moon and Back”.

Below is a recording of a live stream of Ryuichi Sakamoto playing his masterpiece in 2022, which is his last public performance.

In 1989, he won the Oscar award for Best Movie Soundtrack for his compositions for “The Last Emperor” directed by Bernado Bertolucci. But I preferred the main theme he composed for “The Sheltering Sky” a 1988 film also by Bertolucci, which won the Golden Globe a year earlier in 1988.

I bought his music in the 90’s in CD format – “Discord” and others, and a box set from Japan which included a compilation of pop songs and his work for TV commercials. The CDs are now in storage.

In 2002, Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborated as the pianist with Jacques Morelanbaum, a cellist and Paula Morelanbaum, a vocalist on a tribute to Brazilian musician and composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, with most of the songs recorded in Jobim’s house in Rio de Janeiro. Sue, our friend T and I managed to see him perform a batch of new and old Bossa Nova songs at Joe’s Pub in New York. The music from this project and concerts were captured in two beloved CDs – “Casa” and “A Day in New York”.

In the new millennium, I was delighted by his collaborations with Carsten Nicoli (as alva noto) which resulted in several albums and singles of minimalistic, meditative piano and electronic sounds – e.g., Vrioon (2002), Summvs (2011). I am familiar with the melody of “By This River” included here as it was a 1977 song by Eno, Roedelius & Moebius from the album “Before and After Science”.

During the pandemic, he gave a concert online titled “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano for the Isolated” – click the link to see the 2020 performance which included also ambient improvisation.

I will close this post with “Life, Life” he released in 2017 in his 14th solo album, “async”. In this piece, Sakamoto included a poem read by David Sylvian. One can hear that he senses his mortality.  David Sylvian said “async” expresses a love and gratitude for life accompanied by the knowledge of its fragility. I wrote a blog post in 2020 Life, Life – Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian about this track including the full text of the poem.

Below is a video of life in New York City accompanied by “Life, Life”

The music made by Ryuichi Sakamoto in the last 40 years from technopop to movie soundtracks, to ambient music has certainly touched the world, and enriched enormously my musical experience. Thank you and rest in peace, Mr Sakamoto.