Alex Heffes & Ryuichi Sakamoto Crystalline (2023)

Inventive and prolific Japanese electronic musician, composer, and arranger; co-founder of the vastly influential Yellow Magic Orchestra. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra and an Academy Award-winning composer for his work on the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, synth pop innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto is among the most groundbreaking artists to have emerged since the late '70s. The driving force behind "Neo Geo," a cutting-edge fusion of Asian and Western classical music with other global textures and rhythms, he has been equally adept in electronic and acoustic settings, whether recording in solitude or in tandem, with decades of steady activity. His discography is immense and varied, including solo piano works, proto-techno, experimental ambient, and glitch.

Composition for 1992 Summer Olympics opening ceremony officially released on the 1997 mini-album of the same name.
Ryuichi Sakamoto crossed numerous musical and cultural boundaries throughout his groundbreaking, highly accomplished career. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped build the foundation for synth pop, electro, and techno during the 1970s and early '80s. He won several major awards for his scores to the films Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987), both of which he had starring roles in. On albums like Neo Geo (1987) and Beauty (1989), he fused pop, classical, electronic music, and global textures and rhythms, working with an extensive guest list ranging from Brian Wilson to Youssou N'Dour…

The piece consists of several cuts that, except for the introduction and the end, are the repetition of a single musical phrase interpreted - with just a few very subtle changes - with different instruments. Very interesting and, as always Sakamoto in his calm facet, very evocative.

On Chasm, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto blends together his favorite styles of music without limiting himself to one genre. Chasm is a mixture of avant-garde and Western pop and a vehicle for uncompromising electronic experimentation. Chasm opens with "Undercooled," a composition that combines rap with an Asian melody. This piece is followed by "Coro," a track made up of harsh audio static. The title track is composed of electronically altered piano notes, which swell up and down and loop mechanically. This piece has a haunting, almost underwater, feel to it. Towards the end of Chasm, we come across "Song," an abstract work that combines a Spartan electronic backbeat with loud white noise. However, Sakamoto makes a sharp left turn for the album's closer "Seven Samurai - Ending Theme"…

Restrained, passionate, and absolutely beautiful.
"Forbidden Colours" is a 1983 song by David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The song is the vocal version of the theme from the Nagisa Oshima film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. It appears on the film's soundtrack album and was released as a single on Virgin Records in 1983 (the second collaborative single release by Sylvian and Sakamoto, following 1982's "Bamboo Houses").

In celebration of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 70th birthday, Milan Records announced A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto: To the Moon and Back, a collection of songs from Sakamoto’s vast catalogue newly reworked and remodeled by contemporary artists and collaborators.

Composition for 1992 Summer Olympics opening ceremony officially released on the 1997 mini-album of the same name.
Ryuichi Sakamoto crossed numerous musical and cultural boundaries throughout his groundbreaking, highly accomplished career. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped build the foundation for synth pop, electro, and techno during the 1970s and early '80s. He won several major awards for his scores to the films Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987), both of which he had starring roles in. On albums like Neo Geo (1987) and Beauty (1989), he fused pop, classical, electronic music, and global textures and rhythms, working with an extensive guest list ranging from Brian Wilson to Youssou N'Dour…

Composition for 1992 Summer Olympics opening ceremony officially released on the 1997 mini-album of the same name.
Ryuichi Sakamoto crossed numerous musical and cultural boundaries throughout his groundbreaking, highly accomplished career. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped build the foundation for synth pop, electro, and techno during the 1970s and early '80s. He won several major awards for his scores to the films Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987), both of which he had starring roles in. On albums like Neo Geo (1987) and Beauty (1989), he fused pop, classical, electronic music, and global textures and rhythms, working with an extensive guest list ranging from Brian Wilson to Youssou N'Dour…