Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

Listening to this as well. A lot of it is basically his fusion album – Japanese melodies over Gaucho-ish horn arrangements, Fairlights pads and electronic percussion. It goes down pretty easily but has some nice 80s production touches. The first track was stuck in head this am and is a full-on YMO reunion cum big band. YMBB?

This = Ongaku Zukan

Also, listening to this makes me realize how long it took before I really *got* Sakamoto. I think my first exposure to him was on Sylvian’s first several records and Gentlemen Take Polaroids . I also read the entry about him in the Trouser Press Record Guide (an early bible for me) – the descriptions of his pedigree and Japanese-Western fusion experiments made his records sound incredibly exotic but very little of his catalogue (or YMO’s) was available then (early 90s).

When I finally heard Neo Geo, the followup to Ongaku and produced by Bill Laswell (Sakamoto was kind of the designated Fairlight guy in his Session All-Stars around that time – he’s the one noodling at the beginning of the last track on PiL’s Album), I was a little underwhelmed. It was the first of his own releases featuring big names, and while there were hints of what I would eventually love about him, it had fewer textural experiments and less ambition than I had hoped for. The same was largely true of Heartbeat, the two solid Sylvian collaborations aside.

It was only when I happened upon a cutout Dutch copy of Left Handed Dream and Technodelic at Borders Books and Music that I began to understand what the fuss was about. Yes, he can be overly sentimental at times but at its best the orchestral and Japanese formalism sounds fabulous juxtaposed with various electronic experiments.

Even still, it’s never been very easy to get a complete picture of his output – I’ve still never seen a physical copy of B-2 Unit and I literally just heard Illustrated/Ongaku this week, which are hugely important records in his catalogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUaNz9M8fs8

this is extremely cool

maybe my favorite single of the year thus far actually

Over the last month I've been really diving into his solo works (with some mixed results). I've been delighted to find albums such as B-2 Unit and Esperanto have finally clicked with me. The original version of Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia was a revelation too. Async was the clear standout of his later works although there's still a lot I haven't listened to.

The biggest find is the Works I - CM compilation mentioned a couple of times on this thread by frogbs. That is an incredible collection of music that I've probably played ten times in the last week alone. Great tip on that one!

Isn’t it though? Love it!

I honestly can't stop listening to it. I notice there is a volume two as well. Hopefully that's a similar quality as I'm going to need another fix soon.

nice, thanks for bumping it!

https://pc.video.dmkt-sp.jp/ft/s0007155

It looks like Sakamoto is doing a live streaming performance next week on something called DTV, who also seem to be streaming a few other gigs of his from the last few years.

It being a Japanese streaming site, it appears to be completely locked down (I couldn't get anything to play even with a VPN) but someone here might have better luck than me?

So the stream seems to be up and running here: https://pc.video.dmkt-sp.jp/ti/10000238
Working fine VPN'ed into Japan.

They're showing a 2011 gig now, apparently the live stream starts at 7pm Japan time. (11am here in London!)

enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6td9KUZMfw&pbjreload=10

hmm not sure if that worked... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6td9KUZMfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv3Iqzpv3_I

In this documentary, filmed while he was recording Ongaku Zukan, Sakamoto mentions that he has recorded 30 tracks for the album from which he will choose ten, so I'm guessing that's where the supplemental material for the reissue came from.

Realized this am that the record he produced and arranged for Virginia Astley, Hope in a Darkened Heart, is really required listening for anyone interested in Ryuichi’s mid-80s classy orchestral Fairlight experimental pop phase, a la Ongaku Zukan and his contemporaneous work w David Sylvian.

It’s a legitimately weird record – with nursery rhyme-melodies sung in Astley’s little girl falsetto over Ryuichi’s booming gated drums, sequenced music boxes and gamelans. The duet with Sylvian himself that leads off the record is a pretty unique entry in his catalogue:

https://open.spotify.com/track/5nwDAFzUqt7hVVsKoWGcJN?si=xX7P9oCVScqGde8qpsO5eg

Ohhh! Thanks for the recommendation, sounds ace!

It is! And if you want to go the Bandcamp route

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/

Finally watched the Playing Piano for the Isolated concert last week. It's great!

NIT's spotify link is to a mellow 80's compilation :)
Still, having checked the Virginia Astley album, I thank you! Lovely stuff, esp. the latter half. Loved reading up on her, too

69 years old today

he's currently flooding Twitter with birthday wishes causing me to come to the realization that he is a strikingly handsome man, even today

nice

Bad news:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29458-ryuichi-sakamoto-diagnosed-bowel-cancer

Nooooooooooooooooooo :(

Oh man :(

ugh, hopefully he pulls through :(

Ah, fuck. :(

jesus, no

hoping the best for him. Takahashi had a brain tumor removed just a few months ago, as well. :(

its hard to gauge the tone of YT's social media posts, he seems optimistic but apparently he's not out of the woods yet

the one time I randomly catch an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuelFc2j1VM/

Heart does a flip again now when I see this thread bumped.

Me too :(

Then enjoy this instead, as he has the closing track

https://modernobscuremusic.bandcamp.com/album/prsnt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5Ry5092Pk

now here's a powerful image

https://i.imgur.com/RtP0rpZ.png

I would listen to this crossover.

btw before anyone asks I have no idea what the context of this is, I just saw it in a YMO FB group. i wish i knew

Money Mark
February 24, 2012
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Keith Emerson!…i’m standing with two of the very best!!….YMO,ELP….backstage,Hollywood Bowl

new album is heavy. maybe it's knowing about his health struggles, maybe it's because YT recently passed, but wow is there a lot of weight to what is essentially a solo piano album (there are some synths too of course). you can even hear him breathing throughout. almost sounds like he's struggling sometimes.

like I'm listening on headphones and I keep thinking someone is behind me

While I thought async was elegiac this new one, 12, is almost too much.

oh man, yeah, “heavy” is the right word. I’m usually not a fan of his solo piano stuff either but this one is hitting differently for sure. haven’t quite decided if it’s due to the circumstances but don’t think it’s just that. hits pretty hard in any case and isn’t something i can just throw on casually.

the least interesting ymo member. i consider his solo output pretty overrated. on the other hand, hosono and takahashi solo material is pretty consistent.

the least interesting ymo member. i consider his solo output pretty overrated. on the other hand, hosono and takahashi solo material is pretty consistent.

Geeta Dayal with an excellent piece on the album:

https://4columns.org/dayal-geeta/ryuichi-sakamoto

CerebralCaustic, I can understand that opinion if you're solely judging based on solo albums. But have you checked out Sakamoto's production/arrangement work? It's incredible. Taeko Onuki and Akiko Yano's early-to-mid '80s albums, for starters? It's incredible.

12 has turned into a daily play for me. i hope he can release more music, but if he doesn't, it's a powerful final act.

xxpost nonsense

fwiw Sakamoto is my "least favorite" of the three too, only because Hosono's music is very spiritual and precious to me and Takahashi has done so much stuff I absolutely love, while Sakamoto has a bunch of albums I'm just not really too interested in. that said I still love him and own a lot of his solo albums. so "least favorite" isn't really a term I like using. pound for pound surely YMO is one of the greatest bands in history

Geeta's review was nice. wonder what she's been up to?? not posting on ILX I see.