Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

this gets stuck in my head a lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiz1dEJ3l7M

YOU! YOU!

hahaha awesome

CM/TV is also excellent

yup I'm listening to it now; it's mostly the same tunes though isn't it?

whoa, there's a Penguin Cafe Orchestra cover on here (???)

Turns 63 today!!

he's a god.

I recently got Beauty based on the Allmusic review and "album pick" status. I'm now halfway through and holy crap, this is maybe one of the worst albums I've purchased in years.

Every time I see this thread bumped I fear I'm going to read that he's died.

xp "beauty" hasn't aged well it's true

i had the same thought, wish him well.

Oh God, me too, hope he's doing well.

According to the YMO Media Fan's FB page there's another mad exhibition of YMO's gear and artwork in Japan somewhere, lot's of geeky photo's of their equipment popping up.

I myself don't have the slightest problem with Beauty or any other music "aging" objectively (if that were possible). I have aged; I've found my tastes have expanded, taking in and not excluding anything I have seriously enjoyed before. I'm still enjoying Beauty as I did back in the day, and still find it one of his best realised albums.

on the cancer front, the latest news is he's beaten it.

there's a slew of MIDI/Alfa reissues of the early stuff (up to and including Esperanto) that's been released recently, nice 2-cd edition of Ongaku Zukan and other stuff. details here: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/MDCL-5034

Oh wow, that's AWESOME!

really? i would be so happy! my internet is garbage right now so i actually can't check, but last i looked (~a month ago) his website still had the cancer notice posted...

Didn't realize he was sick :( Hope he legitimately has beaten it though.

I've been passovely looking out for copies of Esperanto ever since I saw the thread on it here. Apropos S/D, what else is good in that vein (i.e. more,mfor lack of a better word, "weird")?

Every time I see this thread bumped I fear I'm going to read that he's died.

no kidding, really glad to see he's doing better

Beauty is still decent to my ears, I still think "Amore" is one of the best songs he's ever done. If you don't like it definitely don't get any of the albums that followed it until 1996, cuz I do think he tailed off quite a bit afterwards.

Smoochy was 1996 and that's fantastic, or is that what you're saying, that the 1990-95 period is underwhelming, but then he rallied?

I too love Smoochy, and Heartbeat (1992) as well. I also think Chasm, his last 'glitch pop' album (2004) is grand. He mostly fell off my radar after that, mainly because that minimal ambient electronica is not my forte, but I'm meaning to check all that newer stuff too. There's nothing in his catalogue that's inherently bad - his output being so diversified, it's just a matter of what's up your alley at any given time.

xp yeah that's what I'm saying, don't remember much of Smoochy but that sort of lighter, more hip-hop driven pop he was doing never really did it for me. the album 1996 was pretty damn good though and cast a new light on a lot of those tunes.

Chasm was one of the first I'd heard from him and I thought it was awesome - it was his first new album since I'd gotten into him and I kinda figured he'd be doing albums like it for a long time, just long amalgams of his entire career like that. I'm not much a fan of the recent collabs he's done with people like Fennesz and Alva Noto, putting harsh distortion over minimal piano bits isn't interesting in the slightest to me. Still wanna hear his newer solo piano stuff.

I've been passovely looking out for copies of Esperanto ever since I saw the thread on it here. Apropos S/D, what else is good in that vein (i.e. more,mfor lack of a better word, "weird")?

― ed.b, Friday, April 3, 2015 6:44 AM (2 hours ago)

b-2 unit is his other really weird one, more like early 80s post punk/industrial bricolage electro -- sounds v advanced for the time

ongaku zukan is probably my most played album by him but it is more in a melodic art pop vein but still quite experimental in parts.

futurista has a couple tracks that sound like esperanto but suspect you will hate some of the pop songs (w/ the vocalist from the peech boys)

the "field work" single's b-side "exhibition" is still the strangest music he's ever done -- and one of the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLm5hvuhtWA

the entire piece is 15 mins

Search: Thousand Knives (!!), B2 Unit (!!), Tokyo Joe, Adventures of Chatran OST, CBL (!!), Disappearance, Cinemage, CM / TV (!! seriously astonishing collection of TV spots and the like), Comica, Derrida OST, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence OST (!!), Ongaku Zukan, Playing the Piano (extended Japanese version has some worthwhile additions), Smoochy OST, Shining Boy & Little Randy OST (!!), Silk OST (!!), Soundbytes comp (!!), Soundtracks live comp (!!), High Heels OST, UTAU instrumentals disc, Wuthering Heights OST, Year Book 2005-2014, /04 (!!), /05 (!!), 1996 (!! w/ bonus tracks why not)
Consider: Chasm (lot of dreck, but some unbelievable stuff on there), BTTB, Casa, A Day in New York, The End Of Asia, Esperanto, Heartbeat (lotta shit, some greatness), Image Sketch, Little Buddha OST, Century of Reform (some dumb arrangement choices but the "Rhodes Version" tracks are top tier new age/ambient), Futurista, Neo Geo, Out Of Noise, Three, Harakiri OST, all of his late period collaborations with western ambient people
Destroy: Bricolages (mostly boring remixes by other artists), Femme Fatale OST, Summer Nerves, fuckawful Sweet Revenge album (though title track is gold), UTAU, トニー滝谷

and more, but fuck it

Can anybody help? The music on this vid at 5:15 onwards, I think it is really well known, is it a Sakamoto piece? Killing me...

https://youtu.be/-XVIFadHzZ8?t=5m14s

nope, not so well known. seems to be a version of material from Ryuichi's (completely gorgeous) Shining Boy & Little Randy OST. Ryuichi rearranges and re-titles themes all the time in his soundtracks, so without relistening through the whole thing i can't say for sure that this version isn't on the soundtrack itself, but knowing him and the circumstances it's probably one of his self-covers. nobody does a better job of consistently reimagining their own material...

skimming the soundtrack now it sounds like this uses bits and pieces throughout the whole thing, most of which isn't on youtube, but here's the full-blown theme itself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cj3Sy1nf1s

if you dig it, you'd profit well from tracking down as much of his soundtrack work and self-cover albums as you can. it's astonishing how much gutting pentatonic beauty he keeps on deck

after some more itunes spelunking, the version on the /05 live piano album is closer to what you hear in your video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geDUXEoOCwE

Thanks so much! I have /05, I quickly zipped through /04 and Playing The Piano but couldn't find it, what a lovely track.

nice! the Shining Boy OST, if you don't have it, has some really nice variations on the theme, less over-the-top than the one in that youtube

I will check it out, I'm def in the mood for some melancholic Sakamoto piano.

http://www.factmag.com/2016/02/03/ryuichi-sakamoto-alva-noto-interview/

New album announced -- sole details in email:

20170428

2XLP + CD + DIGITAL

A little more at his site:

http://www.sitesakamoto.com/

geez, what is it??

dude's been incredibly busy with soundtracks and collabs these last 10 years, but as far as actual studio material would this be the first since Out of Noise in 2009?

hard to believe Chasm was 13 years ago. that seemed like such a career-rejuvenating album at the time, like his entire resume on one disc. looking around now it appears the collabs were a bit more famous.

what I mean to say is, if it's anything other than solo piano or glitch-ambient I'll get excited

It's his 65th birthday today!

More piano + glitch?

http://pitchfork.com/news/71081-ryuichi-sakamoto-announces-new-album-async/

The beauty of "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" makes me tear up to this day.

anyone hear the new one yet?

have just been alerted to the presence of Year Book 2005-2014, a compilation of commissioned work that thus far has gone unreleased. his other commercial music comps have been great so I would guess this one is as well.

Got the new one, and currently on a second listen.

In short, it's fab. Yes, it's ambient/glitch (which may disappoint a few upthread) but with a much less austere tonal palette than the collaboration records (where he was basically adding piano ornaments to other people's dronescapes, not that there's anything wrong with that). It's low key but colourful - lurrrrvely Prophet 5 chords on Zure, for example. And the odd melodic flourish that'll make you well up a bit in places too.

Will see how it plays out over subsequent listens, but I'm loving it so far. What with the Revenant soundtrack being his best OST in years, his post-illness return to work on such stellar form is an inspiring thing to behold.

Is there a track with David Sylvian on the new one?..,

new album is pretty amazing

^
i really like the combination of introspective, lyrical piano pieces with sound art tracks on async.

Great album

yup

he's in NYC next weekend for a film retro of his scores

https://quadcinema.com/program/forbidden-colours-ryuichi-sakamoto-at-the-movies/

The Revenant too recent for a retrospective?

could be

also an arthouse venue

true

while aysnc just breezed by like a cool autumn day on the first few listens, I've recently returned to it and found it to be a stunner. I thought his previous solo album Out of Noise was kind of boring but I really like the "14 flavors of ambient" thing going on here, not to mention how the title/theme "async" manifests itself in several ways. I wish it was a bit more melodic but only because the actual melodies on here are absolutely gorgeous. I like the plinky plonky stuff. Reminds me a bit of The Ship by Eno, not in any thematic way but rather how the openness and sense of space lets you hear the compositions in a number of ways.

also it occurred to me that this is sort of a spiritual successor to B-2 Unit and Esperanto in some ways

Doco & a concert film coming our way soon, which likely means US/UK audience have already had a chance to see them - any good?

Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA
Ryuichi Sakamoto: async Live at the Park Avenue Armory

doc is playing in NY, haven't seen it yet