Ryuichi Sakamoto

The defining moment of Glenn Gould's career came in 1964 when, at the age of 31, he withdrew from all public performance. The move was viewed by audiences and critics as willful and bewildering, and was seen as evidence that despite his demonstrably supreme artistry he was, in the argot of the common man, a nut. But, as George Szell once said of him, "That nut [was] a genius." In his short international career, which spanned only 24 years, Glenn Gould changed the way the music world thought about performance practice, recording, and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Glenn Gould was born to comfortable middle-class parents in Toronto in 1932. A pampered only child, Gould demonstrated his remarkable talents quite early and in 1943 entered the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where he quickly came to the attention of its director, Sir Ernest MacMillan. On MacMillan's recommendation, Gould was taken on as a student by the Chilean-born pedagogue Alberto Guerrero, whose own style was partly the basis for Gould's own sensitive touch. Gould once described Guerrero's keyboard technique as not so much striking the keys as "pulling them down."

Morelenbaum2/Sakamoto - A Day In New York (2003)
Brazil/Nu Jazz/Bossa Nova/Lounge | MP3 | CBR 256 kbps | 45:18 | 82 MB

One of 2002's best releases, Casa, has a follow-up cd that is bound to leave you breathless again. A Day in New York picks up where Casa left off and takes you to another visit to the world of Jobim music in the hands of these highly talented musicians. The original trio, Jaques Morelenbaum (cello), Paula Morelenbaum (vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano), was joined on the road by Luiz Brasil (acoustic guitar) and Marcelo Costa (percussion). This new quintet is what you hear in this recording. A Day in New York is sometimes meditative, sometimes melancholy and sometimes playful (just hear the ending in "Samba do Avião"). Through it all, the album is magnificent, and it was done in a single day! That is no rare feat and one that can only be easily accomplished when you bring together these consummate musicians. Get comfortable. You're home again with Morenlenbaum2/Sakamoto.

This double disc is a collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz, with the former man taking a decidedly dominant role throughout. The concept behind the album is fairly straightforward: on each night of a 24-date tour, Sakamoto wrote and performed a piano piece in a different key. By tour's end, he'd explored every possible tonal variation within Western notation. He provided these short, jewel-like solo piano melodies to Fennesz, who laid them in soft beds of gently caressing electronics. The results are very pretty…

Sakamoto - For Mr Lawrence, Piano Music - Jeroen van Veen (2019) {Brilliant Classics 95389}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/48kHz - Official Digital Download -> 843 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 821 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2019 Brilliant Classics | 95389
Classical / Chamber Music / Contemporary Classical / Piano

A comprehensive collection of Sakamoto’s instrumental songs and film music from a master of Minimalist piano. Famed worldwide as a film composer, Ryiuchi Sakamoto began his career as a pianist, creating patterns, phrases and innovative arrangements before joining his first commercial electronic pop band in 1978, the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Around the same time, he worked on his first solo album, the Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto (1978), which blends up-to-date electronic techniques with an old-fashioned gift for good tunes. Riot in Lagos brought him fame beyond Japan, and he went on to work with many top producers of pop, dance and electro.

After his much-lauded debut ‘Childish Mind’, classical guitarist Jonathan Bockelmann pays tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto with a series of innovative arrangements of pieces by the Japanese composer.