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Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
- cozzyd 4y agoRise crystal spear
- 50 4y agohttps://fenneszreleases.bandcamp.com/track/haru-2 https://fenneszreleases.bandcamp.com/track/haru-2
- Hamuko 4y agoFollowing the death of Takahashi in January, this leaves Hosono as the only surviving member of Yellow Magic Orchestra.
- 79a6ed87 4y agoI like Takahashi's music a lot and I just learned through your comment about his passing. This day got sader out of nowhere
- AraceliHarker 4y agoHaruomi Hosono became the only member of YMO, just like his grandfather who was the only Japanese survivor of the Titanic.
- paganel 4y agoRIP to a very talented guy. I haven’t listen to much of his solo work, but Yellow Magic Orchestra was something very special, I saw it as “out of this world” music.
- emmelaich 4y agoI hadn't known about this! Yukihiro Takahashi was a great talent too. Sakamoto had so so many fantastic collaborations.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoIt's a miracle he lived as long as he did. The cancer just kept coming back.
- tomduncalf 4y agoSad news. I love his work with Alva Noto, the blend of experimental piano with raw electronic sounds and glitches is really something special: https://spotify.link/2LzLYmBKFyb https://spotify.link/2LzLYmBKFyb. I was lucky enough to see them play together a couple of times and it was spellbinding. His album “async” is a favourite too. I’ll have to dig more into his back catalogue.
- cloudripper 4y agoSame. I'm a big fan. I caught their performance once in Hong Kong many years ago. Very captivating. Good reminder to celebrate a life well lived by rediscovering his beautiful artwork.
- Lapsa 4y agooooooh... mentioning Alva Noto did the trick for me and I remembered who the guy is. contemplated a lot regarding to what folks around those lands mean by a negative space. brilliant music
- tomduncalf 4y agoI saw a Sakamoto quote along the lines of negative space on Twitter, not sure of the source or context exactly but I liked it. — After the concert, we started talking, and he complained that I played much slower than the original songs or pieces. He asked, "Why?" That made me think, "Why do I want to play much slower than before?" Because I wanted to hear the resonance. want to have less notes and more spaces. Spaces, not silence. Space is resonant, is still ringing. I want to enjoy that resonance, to hear it growing, then the next sound, and the next note or harmony can come. That's exactly what I want
- ok_computer 4y agoAlva Noto + Sakamoto Insen is one of my favorite ambient albums. I have the insen & utp_ dvds. I’d have loved to see those concerts live. Async was solid. He was next level in writing and producing. Sakamoto’s music will be missed. He was one of the greats. Logic moon: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BTaAs8OdvX4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BTaAs8OdvX4 Solari: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Okyb-2jLo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Okyb-2jLo & some moog ad where his off the cuff work sounds huge and both discordant and melodic simultaneously. He’s a legend. https://youtu.be/wdhzVFZlKsM?t=886 https://youtu.be/wdhzVFZlKsM?t=886 Rip Edit: last one Monomom from Two where they played in Sydney https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JaEyh-Y42Dc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JaEyh-Y42Dc
- processing 4y ago"An artist's initial broad stroke is always most impactful, and obsessively adding layer upon layer of paint to fill in details often diminishes the painting's aura. When an aura is lost, it is impossible to get back." - Ryuichi Sakamoto
- creamyhorror 4y agoVery true. Farewell, Mr. Sakamoto.
- birriel 4y agoMy favorite live performance of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". RIP https://youtu.be/L49FRjnhrWI https://youtu.be/L49FRjnhrWI
- vonbaum 4y agoThis performance is magical.
- nathankot 4y agoIt's very interesting to compare with a more recent performance (2020): https://youtu.be/X6td9KUZMfw?t=5259 https://youtu.be/X6td9KUZMfw?t=5259
- shuckles 4y ago"After the concert, we started talking, and he complained that I played much slower than the original songs or pieces. He asked, “Why?” That made me think, “Why do I want to play much slower than before?” Because I wanted to hear the resonance. I want to have less notes and more spaces. Spaces, not silence. Space is resonant, is still ringing. I want to enjoy that resonance, to hear it growing, then the next sound, and the next note or harmony can come. That’s exactly what I want." - Ryuichi Sakamoto, https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/ryuichi-sakamoto-on-how-your-work-changes-as-you-get-older/ https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/ryuichi-sakamoto-o...
- least 4y agoGabriel Fauré's Pavane Op. 50 is an example of a song that really turns into something drastically different when played much slower than the prescribed tempo. To me it sounds much better that way. In the case of this rendition of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, it's a bit more subtle though. It really does allow you to hear the strings resonate more like you quoted, and to me, it makes the entire piece sound even more contemplative than it already did.
- max23_ 4y agoAlways have the same calm feeling while listening to this piece. Farewell Mr. Sakamoto.
- AraceliHarker 4y agoSakamoto must have died with a bitter taste in his mouth, watching the government try to restart the nuclear plants under the pretext of power shortage. He had always been a vocal opponent of nuclear power, a rare voice in a country that seemed to have forgotten the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He had a sharp wit and a playful style, but also a deep sense of justice and compassion. He would have hated to see his beloved country go down this path of self-destruction.
- ChadNauseam 4y ago> He had always been a vocal opponent of nuclear power, a rare voice in a country that seemed to have forgotten the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What is the connection between nuclear power and Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoOnly an artist can draw such strained pictures I guess.
- retrac 4y agoNuclear reactors produce plutonium. A world without any nuclear reactors or uranium enrichment facilities, is a world without nuclear weapons. It's perhaps particularly relevant with Japan; they are the nation probably most often used as an example of a country that could develop nuclear weapons almost overnight, should the political will materialize. They have the know-how, industry, missiles, and because of the nuclear power program, both stockpiles of, and the ability to produce, both enriched uranium and plutonium. Edit: Did I hit a nerve or something folks? For the record I personally strongly support nuclear power. Parent asked a question. It's obvious to me why anti-nuclear activists link weapons and power reactors. It's not (necessarily) lack of scientific understanding -- power reactors produce the material for nuclear bombs. Some people think that is unacceptable as a proliferation risk. Don't shoot the messenger? Was just trying to contribute to the discussion positively.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
- FpUser 4y agoOne of my favorite composers. RIP.
- blondin 4y agosad news. truly love listening to his work. RIP
- amelius 4y agoThe advertisements on this page are extra annoying, given the topic. The industry has no moral code.
- JohnBooty 4y agoI never see his soundtrack for Aile de Honneamise / Wings of Honneamise / Royal Space Force talked about. I really think it's one of his best! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgKK67WiLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgKK67WiLY
- SmartestUnknown 4y ago“Rain” is one of my favorites. RIP.
- hoherd 4y agoI had heard him here and there, but the first time I really started paying attention to him was the Zero Landmine[1] project. After that I watched him alongside David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence[2] and realized he was the creator of that famous melody. After that I was hooked. Like others in this thread I really love his collaborations with Alva Noto, especially By This River[3]. I'm sad he's gone, but I'm happy we will always have the great things he created. 1. https://youtu.be/_CQXI01usj0 https://youtu.be/_CQXI01usj0 2. https://youtu.be/AALrrgEOlvU?t=119 https://youtu.be/AALrrgEOlvU?t=119 3. https://youtu.be/rTv8m8vjjTk https://youtu.be/rTv8m8vjjTk
- rado 4y agoHe agreed to act in the film after they let him compose the music. It turned out well. RIP sensei
- daviddaviddavid 4y agoJust want to share a couple great works by Sakamoto. I'm a big fan. One of my favorite bossa nova albums is A Day In New York by Morelenbaum/Sakamoto. Here's Desafinado from that album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtdR9WkOOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtdR9WkOOY And his early synth-y stuff is just so hip. Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto (1978) is some badass stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGo7n6CMCcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGo7n6CMCcE
- Aco- 4y agoCouldn't agree more with this comment. I came here to share these, too. Some of his best work, imo. Here's the full album ("Casa") for those interested: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kD_LK3RoPwL6UNzGT2syZpUWkwiQGn9_I https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kD_LK3RoPwL6UNzGT2...
- teknico 4y ago“Casa” and “A Day in New York” are among the most beautiful bossa nova records I know of.
- twelvechairs 4y agoI always have loved 'thousand knives' most of all. So clear and melodic but such a challenge to western songmaking - 'popular' and 'classical'. RIP Sakamoto.
- deepzn 4y agoRIP sir. I love listening to his music while studying or working. Truly a great.
- jjulius 4y ago"The industrial revolution made the production of an instrument like [the piano] possible. Several planks of wood - six I think in this case - are overlaid and pressed into shape by tremendous force for six months. Nature is molded into shape. Many tons of force and pressure are applied, making the strings what they are. Matter taken from nature is molded by human industry, by the sum strength of civilization. Nature is forced into shape. Interestingly, the piano requires re-tuning. We humans say, 'It falls out of tune', but that's not exactly accurate - matter is struggling to return to a natural state. The tsunami, in one moment, became a force of restoration. The [tsunami-damaged] piano re-tuned by nature actually sounds good to me now. In short, the piano is tuned by force to please our ears or ideals; it's a condition that feels natural to us humans. But from nature's perspective, it's very unnatural. I think deep inside me somewhere, I have a strong aversion to that." - Ryuichi Sakamoto
- hungryforcodes 4y agoThough we ourselves are by definition part of the universe and thus nature.
- tantivy 4y ago“Nature” and “natural” are normative terms that commonly distinguish the world altered and created by humans from the world that isn’t altered or created by humans. It’s clear in context that Sakamoto is using the term accurately in a normative sense, not making a semantic error.
- msla 4y agoAnd that normative sense succeeds in separating humanity from nature, creating an "Us vs It" narrative that makes pollution easier to ignore. After all, if everything humanity does is pollution, why single any specific acts out?
- coldtea 4y agoPollution goes on because it's the convenient path of least resistance, has short term benefits (e.g. we keep indulging in consumptiona as usual) and there are huge profit interests. That simple. How we see nature plays little role, in after-the-fact justifications or condemnations. In fact pollution could be justified under either view: Humanity is different than nature: all we do is pollution, in the sense that is outside of nature. So why single any specific act out? Or other potential arguments: "We are better than nature, and we'll eventually just sort pollution out with our technology". Humanitity is "just" nature: so what we do is natural, including pollution. No need to do something else, we just keep doing what comes natural to us, including polluting. Why consider huge heaps of human garbage any worse that we consider other animals creating their own waste?
- indigoabstract 4y agoI listened to some of his songs and enjoyed them. Beautiful music. Farewell!
- steponlego 4y agoMy wife and I were just talking yesterday about how we hoped Ryuichi would make another album before he died.
- davidjade 4y ago“12” was released just this last January. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_(Ryuichi_Sakamoto_album) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_(Ryuichi_Sakamoto_album)
- the-rc 4y agoRecently, he also streamed multiple times over a weekend this one hour "concert", actually a compilation of pieces he played with obvious difficulty in a Tokyo studio, over an entire week. There's supposed to be a release of that, too, at some point.
- BossHogg 4y agoThis is as surprising to me as it is sad. 2 of 3 YMO members now gone at 70 and 71 which seems very young given the renown of Japanese longevity. Anyway, Beauty is a favorite album from my childhood so probably time for a re-listen.
- toyg 4y ago> seems very young given the renown of Japanese longevity Well, Sakamoto-san didn't exactly live a traditional Japanese life. Three marriages, playing in a band in the '70s (so disreputable!), jet-setting around the world... Shit takes its toll (unless you're Mick Jagger, of course).
- TeaBrain 4y agoA number of prolific Japanese Jazz keyboardists/pianists have died relatively young. Hirotaka Izumi, who played keyboards for T-Square and Pyramid, died from acute heart failure at 62. The Japanese Jazz composer and pianist Jun Fukamachi, who released an average of over one album per year in his 39 years as a band leader, died from an aortic dissection at 64. Japanese jazz pianist and composer Hiromasa Suzuki, who has over a hundred album writing credits to his name, died at 61.
- eredengrin 4y agoDo I spy a fellow T-Square fan? You have any other recommendations? I've found a few related bands in the Casiopea/T-Square family but I have a feeling there's a whole iceberg left to delve into if I can find it.
- TeaBrain 4y agoOther than the artists I mentioned, I also enjoy Masayoshi Takanaka, Kazumi Watanabe, Horii Katsumi Project, Dimension, Trix, Prism, and Fragile. Which reminds me that Fragile's drummer, Kozo Suganuma, also died relatively young a couple years back, at 62.
- pacomerh 4y agoTruly admire Sakamoto's work, a big influence in my life. From Yellow Magic Orchestra to all his solo career. RIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWI5aVKvkCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWI5aVKvkCg
- aledalgrande 4y agoI did not know him, but after listening to his music I really wish I was able to attend one of his live performances.
- mrandish 4y agoI first discovered him when I bought Wild Palms soundtrack, a lesser known composition but still amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMy_Hvk7cGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMy_Hvk7cGI
- gHA5 4y agoRyuichi Sakamoto - "andata" (Electric Youth remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g9LEBYJ1oU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g9LEBYJ1oU
- somberi 4y agoAnnoyed by Restaurant Playlists Ryuichi Sakamoto assembled the soundtrack for Kajitsu,(a Japanese restaurant) in Murray Hill (NYC), and what it says about the sounds we hear (or should) while we eat. NY Times article: https://nyti.ms/3zmI4XD https://nyti.ms/3zmI4XD Sans Paywall: https://archive.is/9knVL https://archive.is/9knVL The songs listed, as Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3znZ4fY https://spoti.fi/3znZ4fY I will miss him.
- xdavidliu 4y agoMy favorite Sakamoto piece is Bolerish, and obvious homage to Ravel's Bolero; from the soundtrack of the little-known film "Femme Fatale"
- xdavidliu 4y agoThe full track is not on Youtube or Spotify (believe me I tried) so I purchased the CD from Amazon just for that one track (I didn't care about the others)
- jacquesm 4y agoOh that sucks. Only 71... I was listening to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence just yesterday in the car. Amazing music and a pretty good movie too, if you have the stomach for it. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085933/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085933/ More and more of my musical heroes are dying and I'm well aware of the fact that they aren't all that far ahead of me.
- jmfldn 4y agoSo sad to hear this. One of my all time favorite artists. I discovered him years ago as Yellow Magic Orchestra were a crucial influence on electro and techno. As someone into the early roots of those genres, YMO became my gateway drug into Sakamoto's wider oeuvre. I always identified with his taste, an eclectic mix of pop, art music, classical and electronic. A true original, I will miss him greatly.
- mastazi 4y agoBibo no Aozora is a favourite of mine. RIP master. Played live on the piano by Sakamoto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwhYiHJq16c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwhYiHJq16c Orchestral version from Babel soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKlf_x9zRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKlf_x9zRE
- karpour 4y agoI just found out about YMO in January and have been slightly obsessed with them since then. Now another member dies, it's sad to read. Seeing this on the front page of HN is nice though, and I just am now realizing the massive breadth of Mr. Sakamoto's musical skills. There's still so much amazing music to discover out there, and I'm glad to see that his legacy will remain, and that his music will be listened to by many people who might have never heard it before!
- folex 4y ago/05
- toomuchtodo 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryuichi_Sakamoto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryuichi_Sakamoto
- kompressor 4y agoMy mom was the babysitter of his son (with Norika) for a few years in the 90s. I was around 6-7 years old. I remember Norika as being incredibly kind. She would let my mom bring me to their home often while babysitting their toddler. We had just immigrated from China, so I was decked out in very fobby clothing. Norika took me to The Gap one day and bought a whole new wardrobe for me. I'm still grateful for her kind gesture 30 years later. I never spoke with Ryuichi. To me, he was just this mysterious man who occasionally showed up at the apartment and would go straight to his studio.
- ChainOfFools 4y agoIs this the same "Miss Sakamoto" who as the wife of Ryuchi, peripherally involved in the production of Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me With Science, inspired the quote from the scientist in that song?
- the-rc 4y agoNo, if anyone, that would have been his first wife Akiko Yano, who is a jazz piano player and singer. She can be seen in footage from live YMO performances, as an additional band member.
- the-rc 4y agoI always managed to miss him live, to my regret. I have his COVID-era box set with a fragment of the plate that he hand painted, broke and recorded, but it feels so sad to never have been in the same room or crossed his path randomly in NYC (one can dream). Having never experienced a Morricone performance, either, and knowing that I'd probably never see Ryuichi on stage, is what drove me this year to see as many favorite musical acts live as possible, before it's too late. Sakamoto had a way of doing and thinking through things better than many, but still with some sort of simplicity. I mean, he was in a class of his own even for something as mundane as washing hands: https://youtu.be/VnV4GGXIhfM https://youtu.be/VnV4GGXIhfM (of course, this hits differently now than when it first came out) RIP Ryuichi
- pcurve 4y agoI love watching young Ryuichi Sakamoto in this film clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fvFIJpZmZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fvFIJpZmZA tidbit: he had rather large hand with long fingers for someone who is 171cm. I went a museum that had a cast of his hands and I was surprised at how large they were.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ioseph 4y agoI only just this year discovered Yellow Magic Orchestra, such forward music for it's time and I feel hugely influenced a lot of the video game composers of later years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQruh2g1Ywo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQruh2g1Ywo
- recursiveturtle 4y agoHis work on a film I return to in melancholy, “Tony Takitani,” is note-perfect, the soundtrack of sighs.
- lnoir 4y agoIt feels odd to upvote this type of post. Yet I don't really know what I want to say. It's saddening to say the least. Ever since I heard Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Mr Sakamoto has had a special place in my heart. What gifts he gave to the world.