On March 28, 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto died aged 71. He was musician (piano, keyboards, synthesizers), singer, composer, record producer and artist, who first came to prominence as member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, but was best known for his eclectic solo career, straddled experimentalism, electronic, pop and movie music. His work influenced a number of various electronic music genres. He collaborated with big number of musicians, including David Sylvian, David Byrne, Iggy Pop, Thomas Dolby, Adrian Belew, Robin Scott, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Arto Lindsay, Youssou N’Dor, Jill Jones, Robert Wyatt, Brian Wilson and Robbie Robertson. Sakamoto was an “Oscar” winner for “Best Original Score”, for the soundtrack of Bernardo Bertolucci’s movie “The Last Emperor”. As leader, he released 23 albums.
Tag Archives: Bernardo Bertolucci
Ryuichi Sakamoto: async
On March 29, 2017, “Commons” and “Milan” labels released “async”, the nineteenth Ryuichi Sakamoto studio album. It was recorded April – December 2016, at “The Studio”, “Germano Studios” and “Museum of Arts and Design” in New York City, “Bastyr University Chapel” in Kenmore, Washington, “Gateway Mastering” in Portland, Maine, “Kyoto City University of Arts” in Kyoto, Japan, and was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mai Yuda. Magazine “Fact” voted “async” the best album of 2017.
Personnel:
- Ryuichi Sakamoto – piano,
- Christian Fennesz – guitar, computer
- N.S.S. – Singing bowls
- Ian Antonio, Levy Lorenzo, Ross Karre – triangle
- Ko Ishikawa – Shō
- Honjoh Hidejiro – shamisen
- Ian Antonio, Levy Lorenzo, Ross Karre – percussion
- David Sylvian – spoken word
- Andri Magnason, Bernardo Bertolucci, Carsten Nicolai, Christine Leboutte, José Lavat, Keyko Nimsay, Priscilla Leung, Sergei Mihailov, Shirin Neshat, Tang Kit Ming – spoken word vocals
- Paul Bowles – words
- Luca – vocals
- Arseny Tarkovsky – words
- Simon James – concertmaster
- David Sabee – concertmaster
- Alex Venguer, Ryan Kelly, John Winters,.Seigen Ono – recording engineer
- Jason Staniulis, Matthew Sim, Alec Fellman – engineer assistant
- Conrad Hensel – recording, mixing
- Northwest Sinfonia – recording
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Mai Yuda – assistant production
- Norika Sora – associate production
- Alec Fellman – production manager
- Kaz Tsujio – piano technician
- Shiro Takatani – artwork direction, photography
- Yoko Takatani – artwork production
Track listing:
All tracks by Ryuichu Sakamoto
- andata
- disentigration
- solari
- ZURE
- walker
- stakra
- ubi
- fullmoon
- async
- tri
- Life, Life
- honj
- ff
- garden
- Water State 2
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