Yukari Sakamoto

First collaborative album for 13 years from veteran female singer/songwriter Taeko Onuki and Ryuchi Sakamoto. In the early 1970s Onuki was a member of Sugar Babe along with Tatsuro Yamashita, during which time she first met and performed with Sakamoto. Simple album of Onuki's voice accompanied by Sakamoto's piano. Most compositions written by Sakamoto. Undertook a Japan tour in November/December 2010.

Inspired by both Brazilian music and the boundless possibilities of the Internet, electronic composer Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote Smoochy, an endlessly intriguing exploration of what happens when the old world meets the future. Using his Brazilian Internet concept as a foundation, Sakamoto goes on to add a variety of other musics, including jazz and Latin pop, to the music, creating a dense and fascinating musical web of electronics and percussion. Occasionally, he gets too self-consciously arty for his own good, but most of the album finds Sakamoto at his best.

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.

The two albums, playing the piano and out of noise, present a wide ranging view into the world of this composer, musician, producer, actor, and environmental activist.

A collaboration between two of the best-known names in ambient music, the Japanese musician Ryuchi Sakamoto and the Austrian electronica artist Christian Fennesz, CENDRE is a hushed delight from start to finish, containing stately, minimalist pieces such as "Aware," "Kuni," and "Amorph." Fennesz provides the weightless electronic backdrop, into which Sakamoto drops precise chords that ripple the aural surface like smooth pebbles dropped into a pool.

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"…

Sakamoto's all-star blend of Western and Eastern music styles is a triumphant success for the composer, and a consistently good listen. On the title track he takes a traditional Japanese folk song and blends it into a funk groove provided by Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, and Sly Dunbar. Unlike Byrne and Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, this blend of cultures is coming from the opposing angle and stays truer to the source material. But that track is only one of Sakamoto's approaches, and on several other tracks he joins with Laswell to create a crisp, techno-cultural hybrid that sounds like nothing except like pure Sakamoto. On "Risky," a subdued Iggy Pop lends vocals and lyrics, and doesn't come across as an interloper. And on "Okinawa Song," Sakamoto seamlessly integrates the southern island culture into his grand scheme.