Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

😞

Oof. Fuckin cancer.

been dreading this news, what a life and career

he lived an amazing life and left behind so much good music. RIP Sakamoto

Oh no 😢

His latest record was already haunting but man it’s too much to bear right now

Listening to 12 this morning (for the first time in a month or two) was definitely a changed experience.

an artist that, once i discovered him, has never really fallen out of favor or rotation. over half my life now, have always just had him "around" but never really considered him a favorite for whatever reason (seems like he pretty much was the whole time). looking back, very cliche, but what a wholly legendary resume. hard to know what to say when an innovator of his calibre leaves. unending respect. rest well.

I braced for this everytime I saw a headline about him over the last 7 or so years. I suppose the inevitable is inevitable, and think it’s inspiring that he wasn’t just active until the end, but also through cancer and into his 70s. What an absolute legend. I’m grateful for what RS has given this world.

YMO were always such a perfect band for me, because they resembled the 3 parts of a person - YT had the looks, HH had the soul, and RS had the brains. Sakamoto was on a very similar wavelength to Brian Eno, someone who clearly thought about music on a deep and philosophical level. There was such purpose to everything he did, and holy hell did he do a lot of it. async in particular, it says so much despite being fairly minimal. tbh this kind of prevented me from getting into his stuff as much as Takahashi's (whose work is a lot more fun) or Hosono's (whose stuff is more warm and spiritual) - everything Sakamoto did outside of his pop phase had a very particular heaviness to it. His last two especially. async feels like it's bearing the weight of the world. 12 confronts his own mortality in such a direct manner. It's hard to listen to sometimes. But man, it's such brilliant stuff.

RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Here he is with anti-nuke mascot Monju-kun in 2012. pic.twitter.com/zqpVTHa2CM

— Mondo Mascots (@mondomascots) April 2, 2023

God damn it. RIP.

So many heroes going. It's a sadness that can be overwhelming. But we will always have the music.

^^^
I've been a fan of RS since discovering him through his (sensational) contributions to David Sylvian's Secrets of the Beehive, 35 years ago. It's like hearing that an old friend has died. A true titan. RIP.

I was thinking, was that Hosono concert at the Barnican the last time YMO played together?

*Barbican

RIP, what a legend

thought this recent statement he made was beautiful

"Since I have made it this far in life, I hope to be able to make music until my last moment, like Bach and Debussy whom I adore."

i think i will dig out the first mari iijima record, love the songs they did on that one

Belatedly discovering the broader YMO universe in 2019 was probably the last time I got really excited about a whole swath of music that was more or less unknown to me. I'm grateful that he left behind so much, because I've still only scratched the surface — but I'm angered that he's gone, because I knew he was fighting to keep going and 71 seems too young. It probably doesn't help that I was just reading about diminishing life expectancy trends in different parts of the world. RIP, anyway!

Rip to a good one

RIP, spinning BGM right now

Often find BTTB a little sentimental, but it's hitting the spot right now. Farewell, Ryuichi.

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

there are like 3 or 5 sakamoto docs out there, anyone here seen multiple who recommend the best one?

My favorite is Tokyo Melody followed closely by CODA

RIP. I'd be remiss not to mentioning that his parody of "Bolero" in Femme Fatale is one of the most thrilling musical jokes in any American(ish) film.

Reading the story in the Guardian, I had no idea that Eric Clapton(!) had covered Behind the Mask.

hell yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MXUJoHyiuw

Biggest RIP. Only 1996 is making sense today.

Reading the story in the Guardian, I had no idea that Eric Clapton(!) had covered Behind the Mask.

― ionjusit (P. Flick),

His greatest recording

most of his recent stuff is depressing the hell outta me right now so instead I'll link this 2019 track that's an interpretation of "Energy Flow" with tabla and two rappers...I'm guessing fans may recognize who these guys are. I think I actually voted this #1 on the ILM 2019 poll...

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

I tried listening to /05 today but 'Shining Boy...' is just too much to take, probably his most perfect melody, and oh so very sad. I switched to a B-2 Unit live bootleg instead.

For some non-depressing RS, this is just a long string of concise bangers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9intgzzLfk

ahh yeah, his commercial jingles were so good - as an album this would be like, top 5 for me

https://www.discogs.com/release/2283320-Ryuichi-Sakamoto-Works-I-CM

man this sucks. as fate would have it my copy of B-2 Unit arrived a couple days ago, listening now and "Thatness and Thereness" is suddenly heartwrenching

most of the rest, I've suddenly realized, sounds like proto-Autechre, particularly "E3-A" which fooled me into thinking I was listening to Chiastic Slide briefly

its one of those like E2-E4 where every time I see the release year I do a double take

Saw some weird TV mini-series called Wild Palms which he did the score. That stood out to me. I've been meaning to listen to Yellow Magic Orchestra too. RIP.

thanks for the tokyo melody rec upthread

the “tong poo” scene was so cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHhksjfg8Ik

i like all the headlines calling him a 'pop star' because that's a sort of odd idea of what ymo were although i guess not completely incorrect

They were definitely pop stars in Japan.

You’re welcome, original bgm!

My first encounter with Sakamoto was on Japan's "Taking Islands in Africa", a lot warmer emotionally than is usual for Sylvian; and after seeing references to David "Sylvain" in two major Sakamoto obituaries, it's no wonder that he's given up trying to impress himself on modern-day music culture.

Sylvain David Sylvain

"Bamboo Houses" was probably the first time I heard Sakamoto, hated it at the time but then again I was about 14 and I came round to him in time.

So glad I got to see the aforementioned ramshackle YMO 'reformation' at the Barbican Hosono gig a few years back!

he's been doing albums with alvo noto for raster noton since 2002. i've not heard a single one. samples suggest they are very minimal (as per the sleeves)

I saw them play together at the Sydney Opera House - I actually found it a bit uninvolving, but I listened to the live album from the show this morning (‘Two’) and felt it worked much better as a recording. Odd. But I suppose there is a delicacy and intimacy to all the scrapes and rustles that works much better in nearfield listening than it does in a cavernous concert hall.

^This is congruent with my experience of the HAS/YMO gig at the Meltdown Festival in London.

I was kinda perplexed by the setlist and arrangements, and wtf was Fennez doing on stage? But listening/watching back, and after hearing more Sketch Show records, it sounds great to me now.

I really liked the London 2008 live record. Though it's kind of amusing that it only has 3 actual YMO songs on it (4 if you count the new "Rydeen"). Was nice to hear the Sketch Show material live, though "Flakes" and "Mars" are both weird choices in a live context. They have a lot of tracks I think may have worked better. Oh well. The new version of "Ongaku" in particular was really pretty.

Yeah, I stupidly went probably expecting modular synths, Akiko Yano bouncing around, and a 12 min version of Tong Poo, but instead it was this very hushed and measured glitchy electronica.

I'm so glad it was filmed to give the older me a chance to revisit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEs3R3UJr74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY_N6zz60lI

actually I didn't know the London show was professionally shot. funny I assumed all the percussion was electronic but at one point you can see Hosono tapping on a glass bottle with a pencil. I agree it's not what you'd expect from a YMO show but I can really respect that they kept evolving and made no effort to try to recapture the past. I mean the '79 YMO shows supporting Solid State Survivor were absolutely nothing like the '84 ones for Service, in fact every single album they did was way different, so I guess it's YMO after all.

that clip of Sakamoto appearing for the encore is super cute. I can't imagine how geeked out I would've been if I saw that. Reminds me of one of the cutest YMO clips - the part in the Tokyo Dome show where Sakamoto slips in the Cosmic Surfin riff, clearly surprising the other two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfY9AKKK28M

Looking at his work in terms of an album discography is pretty intimidating to someone who mostly focused on his film music. What are the absolute must listens?