Ryuichi Sakamoto Social Project

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).

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.

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra, a mixed orchestra of elementary school to university students from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, was started by Ryuichi Sakamoto immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake. As a memorial performance for director Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away on March 28 of the previous year, performances in Iwate, March 23, 2024, Miyagi, March 30, and Tokyo on March 31 were held. In addition to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s signature songs “The Last Emperor,” “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” “Aqua,” and “The Sheltering Sky,” which were also performed in his last piano solo concert work “Opus,” he also performed at the opening of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sakamoto wrote “El Mar” for the ceremony. This work is a complete recording of a concert composed entirely of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s songs, including “Mediterrani” and “Japanese Soccer Song”, which is known as one of the anthems of Japanese soccer. Sayuri Yoshinaga and Non participated in the reading corner.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album appeared before he formed Yellow Magic Orchestra in late 1978, after the young keyboardist had earned his M.A. in music from Tokyo University. Six long instrumentals make up this CD, but apart from a taste for Asian-sounding synth lines, they hint at very little of what was to come in YMO. "Thousand Knives" is a long disco-lite jazzy workout with a very un-synthesized guitar solo by Kazumi Watanabe (who would later join YMO on tour and have his solo album produced by Sakamoto). Side two's "Da Neue Japanische Electronische Volkslied" and "The End of Asia" (later revamped in YMO) are closest to the new wave of Japanese electronic music that he would spawn. "Island of Woods" and "Grasshoppers" trade in rhythm for sound landscapes, and the sort of cheeriness that would pop up later in Sakamoto's childrens movie scores. Harry Hosono turns up on one track, and generally the album is a pleasant, if unadventurous, listen.