RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023)
The Japanese musician dies at 71
It was a long time coming, yet shocking nonetheless. Today, it was announced that Japanese innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28th at age 71. The cause was rectal cancer.
Born in Tokyo in 1952, Sakamoto studied music at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, focusing on classical, electronic, and ethnic music. Working as a session musician in Tokyo, he arranged and played keyboards on many 1970s city pop records before releasing his own debut solo LP, the 1978 progressive electronic album Thousand Knives.
Around this time, Haruomi Hosono recruited Sakamoto and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi (who passed away at age 70 in January) to form the electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. Initially a way to make fun of Western exotica stereotypes, YMO soon became a full-time unit, with Sakamoto composing early staples including “Tong Poo,” “Behind The Mask,” “Technopolis,” and “The End Of Asia,” the latter of which originally appeared on Thousand Knives. He was referred to as kyōju, or professor; the theorist of the group. YMO’s rise coincided with an explosion in music and recording technology; their early tours utilized gear so cutting-edge it was subject to break down onstage, and they recorded their 1981 LP BGM on one of 3M’s early digital recording systems. While absent for many of the tense sessions, Sakamoto’s contributions to BGM were crucial to the record’s surreal, twisted ambience, which took the rest of the world 10 years to catch up to.
As YMO continued before disbanding in 1984, Sakamoto worked on other projects: solo LPs like 1980’s bizarre B-2 Unit and 1981’s “fourth world”-esque Left Handed Dream, collaborations with David Sylvian, and film scores that exposed Sakamoto’s work to broader international audiences. In 1983, he acted in and composed the score for Nagisa Ōshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and for the rest of his life worked on scores for films (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, and many more), TV shows, and video games.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was immensely prolific. I won’t mention all of his work here but I’ll say that even on his lesser recordings, there’s something of value. He devoted his life to music and created right until the end; his final non-soundtrack solo LP, 12, arrived earlier this year. A “sound diary” he kept during his cancer treatment, it’s a deeply existential work comprised of quiet piano and desolate synth soundscapes. His breathing is audible on the album. 12 is an immensely powerful work about mortality; now that Sakamoto’s gone, it hits harder.
Rest easy, kyōju. Thank you for all the great music, the activism, the innovation, all of it. Your work lives on.
Selected discography:
Thousand Knives (1978)
Solid State Survivor (1979), with Yellow Magic Orchestra
“Riot In Lagos” from B-2 Unit (1980)
BGM (1981), with Yellow Magic Orchestra
Technodelic (1981), with Yellow Magic Orchestra
“Bamboo Houses”/“Bamboo Music” (1982), with David Sylvian
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), film score
1996 (1996)
L.O.L. [Lack of Love] (2000), game soundtrack
12 (2023)
