For this New Sounds, it’s a tribute to the Japanese-born composer, producer, pianist, actor, collaborator activist, DJ (and restaurant playlist curator) Ryuichi Sakamoto. Hear in-studio performances, live concert recordings, and highlights from some of the interviews he gave New Sounds. Sakamoto recorded early music (Danceries), film music (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor, Revenant), “glitch” music with Alva Noto, moody songs with David Sylvian, even moodier orchestral music (Discord), classic Brazilian tunes with the trio Morelenbaum2Sakamoto, and he was a founding member of the electronic-pop outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra.
There was even a 2018 documentary film and artist portrait of him by Stephen Nomura Schible, “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda." Ryuichi Sakamoto, as an activist, also traveled to Greenland’s ice fields to study the effects of climate change and incorporated those sounds in his work. He even found ways to make music while living alongside cancer, in both the melancholy async, and his perhaps final release, 12, which meditates on the legacy that he leaves behind (Pitchfork.)
Listen to Sakamoto’s solo piano arrangements of his own cinematic music, including themes from “The Sheltering Sky” and “The Last Emperor.” Hear select portions of interviews including questioning when noise becomes music, how his music might sound to Western listeners, compared to say…Brian Eno, and his theory of the way Claude Debussy figures into the lineage of musical exchanges around the world. There’s also exclusive concert recordings of Sakamoto’s orchestral concerto, Untitled 01, and a 2002 trio performance of Brazilian music by Antonio Carlos Jobim in which he played with Brazilian singer Paula Morelenbaum and cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, recorded in the newly-restored World Financial Center Winter Garden. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4736, Remembering Ryuichi Sakamoto (First aired 4/6/23)
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence [2:45]
RECORDING: Playing The Piano
SOURCE: Decca B0014662-72
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: The Sheltering Sky [3:55]
RECORDING: Live at WNYC, 1998
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Torn, DJ Spooky, Electrostrings
WORK: Untitled 01: Grief, excerpt [6:57]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, Feb. 1998, in the Winter Garden, Brookfield Place
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: Discord was released on Sony Music #60121 | sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Morelenbaum2 / Sakamoto (Paula Morelebaum, Jaques Morelenbaum, Ryuichi Sakamoto)
WORK: Samba do Aviao (The Airplane Samba) [5:03]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, 11/6/02, in the Winter Garden, Brookfield Place
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: Much of this music is on the Morelenbaum2 / Sakamoto album, Casa, Sony 89982 | sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: The Last Emperor [:30]
RECORDING: Playing The Piano
SOURCE: Decca B0014662-72
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Uoon No. 1 [3:43]
RECORDING: Vrioon
SOURCE: Raster-Noton CDR050C
INFO: noton.info/product/n-051
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: ice [1:38]
RECORDING: Out of Noise
SOURCE: Decca B0014662-72
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Glacier [3:50]
RECORDING: Out of Noise
SOURCE: Decca B0014662-72
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Energy Flow [1:04]
RECORDING: BTTB
SOURCE: WM Japan / re-released Milan Records
INFO: Available on Spotify, YouTube, AppleMusic | sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Prelude [1:22]
RECORDING: BTTB
SOURCE: WM Japan / re-released Milan Records
INFO: Available on Spotify, YouTube, AppleMusic | sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Tango [2:51]
RECORDING: Live at WNYC, 1998
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: The tune appeared on the album, Smoochy, available on Spotify, YouTube, AppleMusic | sitesakamoto.com