Ryuichi Sakamoto, 12

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.

This is awesome score of Sakamoto's for "Taboo" (Gohatto), from master filmmaker Nagisa Oshima with this revisionist Samurai epic…film is set in 1865 during critical times in Japanese history, a struggle between tradition and internationally minded government. With breath-taking cinematography by Toyomichi Kurita, takes on epic proportions with an outstanding cast of actors…this film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Our composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto who gave us - "The Last Emperor" (1987) (Academy Award Winner)…"The Sheltering Sky" (1990)…"High Heels" (1991)…"Tokyo Decadence" (1991)…"Little Buddha" (1993) and "Wild Palms" (1993)…is up for another challenge with this captivating score. For "Taboo", Sakamoto uses every electronic sound from elaborate to technical for dramatic and mood swings for his cues…lightness in tone, softer, with mid-range support of counterpoints, rising and falling synthesized tones.

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.

The album 1996 contains 12 pieces arranged for violin (Everton Nelson, David Nadien, or Barry Finclair), cello (Jaques Morelenbaum), and piano (Ryuichi Sakamoto), including both new compositions and music used in the soundtracks to The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Sheltering Sky, and High Heels. The music is for the most part restrained and reflective, as Sakamoto makes use of the contrasting timbres of the chamber instrumentation, mixing melodic and rhythmic effects soothingly (the exceptions being the more quick-moving "M.A.Y. in the Backyard" and "1919," which uses a barely audible voice and staccato playing to stirring effect).

"Bricolage," a French word meaning to assemble something from available materials, is such a perfect term for the art of the remix that it's surprising no one has ever used it before. It's less surprising that Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work has always had a cool Continental flair despite the artist's Japanese roots, would choose such an elegant term for his swish remix collection. Focusing on reworks of material from 2005's back-to-the-roots electro-pop experiment Chasm, Bricolages features a cross-cultural and cross-generational batch of remixers including Cornelius, whose playful sense of pastiche is to current hipster Japanese pop what Sakamoto's Yellow Magic Orchestra was a quarter-century before; his take on the spoken word cut-up "War & Peace" is considerably lighter and groovier than Aoki Takamasa's tense, austere version. Former Japan drummer Steve Jansen, whose collaboration with Sakamoto goes back to the early '80s, contributes the skittering "Break With," bridging the gap between new wave disco and contemporary IDM.

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"…