THE AMAZING HISTORY OF RYUICHI SAKAMOTO - REST IN PEACE
The renowned Japanese maestro, who died last week, left behind one of the richest discographies in modern music. With more than 20 solo albums produced over the course of forty years, notwithstanding his band contributions and film scoring work, Ryuichi Sakamoto is clearly a workaholic. His music has had a far-reaching influence throughout electronic music and hip hop scenes since he started experimenting on synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP at his university in the early 1970s. Originally studying ethnomusicology at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Sakamoto has displayed a voracious appetite for sounds that stem from every corner of the natural world. In 2008 Sakamoto travelled with 40 other artists of various disciplines and scientists to the Arctic near Greenland, where the enigmatic musician recorded the sounds of the melting ice. In 2009 he was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letter, France’s highest cultural honour. Read more via MIXMAG ASIA here & here.
Some lovely words from GREG WILSON on Ryuchi Sakamoto.
‘RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died on March 28th aged 71.
I first became aware of Sakamoto’s music when I was sent a 12” promo in 1979 by the Yellow Magic Orchestra, a group of pioneering Japanese electronic experimentalists. The record, a disco track with a difference, was ‘Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)’ and a subsequent single ‘Computer Game/Firecracker’, would become a top 20 UK hit in 1980, as well as gaining hip hop kudos via Bambaataa plays, subsequently featuring in his ‘Death Mix 2’.
Sakamoto’s 1980 solo release, ‘Riot In Lagos’, was a total outlier on its release in 1980, sonically unlike anything else, but following the 1982 arrival of electro-funk it was a track I eventually revived on my nights at Wigan Pier and Legend, where it became a favourite with a largely black audience, fitting in perfectly alongside the New York electro that was changing the dynamics of the black music scene. Island would re-issue the track in ’83.
Perhaps best-recognised for his acting role alongside David Bowie in the 1983 film ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’, for which he also wrote the haunting theme, a top 40 UK hit (preceded by a vocal version with David Sylvian, from the band Japan, that reached the top 20 – a previous Sylvian/Sakamoto single, ‘82's ‘Bamboo Houses’, a top 30 hit).
Sakamoto enjoyed a distinguished career in music, notably composing the score for the movie, ‘The Last Emperor’ (1987) - he’d pick up an Oscar, a Grammy and a Bafta along the way.’
