Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto traversed an array of musical and cultural frontiers across a pioneering and richly successful career. Serving as one of three members in Yellow Magic Orchestra, he played a key role in laying the groundwork for synth pop, electro, and techno across the 1970s and early 1980s. Several major awards came his way for the film scores to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987), projects in which he also took on starring roles. Albums such as Neo Geo (1987) and Beauty (1989) blended pop, classical, electronic music, and worldwide textures and rhythms, drawing on a wide roster of collaborators that stretched from Brian Wilson to Youssou N'Dour. Classical directions emerged on releases including 1996 and BTTB (1999), while he sustained an active output writing for films, television series, video games, and art installations. In the 21st century, Sakamoto forged extensive partnerships with experimental ambient and glitch artists Fennesz, Alva Noto (among them the 2015 score for The Revenant), Christopher Willits, and Taylor Deupree. Acclaim continued to greet his later experimental albums, notably 2017's async and 2023's 12.

Born January 17, 1952, in Tokyo, Sakamoto began piano studies at age three and frequently appeared in jazz bands during high school. Influences ranged across the Beatles, Beethoven, and John Cage, alongside strong exposure to avant-garde cinema. He pursued electronic music studies at Tokyo's University of Art, then formed Yellow Magic Orchestra with Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono upon graduation. Drawing from Kraftwerk's robotic imagery, YMO achieved major stardom in Japan, regularly claiming the top spots on the Oricon charts. Their 1980 single "Computer Game" reached the U.K. Top 20 and shaped early rap figures such as Afrika Bambaataa.

Alongside his YMO tenure, Sakamoto delivered his initial solo album, the 1978 art pop release Thousand Knives Of. Two years afterward came B-2 Unit, highlighted by the trailblazing electro-funk track "Riot in Lagos," with the stark contrast between these records signaling the restless variety that would mark his subsequent output. Following YMO's 1983 dissolution, Sakamoto devoted himself full-time to solo and collaborative projects, attaining both artistic and commercial breakthrough that year via his praised score for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, where he also performed opposite David Bowie. The soundtrack initiated multiple joint efforts with David Sylvian, emblematic of Sakamoto's diverse musical alliances. His contributions to 1987's The Last Emperor (also featuring music by David Byrne and Cong Su) secured an Oscar, Grammy, and BAFTA Award for Best Original Score. Other artists he joined forces with that decade included Iggy Pop, Bootsy Collins, and Tony Williams. Particularly surprising was a partnership with Robert Wyatt and Brian Wilson on a cover of the Rolling Stones' "We Love You," featured on 1989's Beauty.

Across the 1990s and 2000s, Sakamoto's soundtrack catalog grew in both volume and impact. While issuing wide-ranging and ambitious solo efforts such as Heartbeat, Sweet Revenge, and the multimedia opera LIFE, he supplied extensive music for films including Pedro Almodovar's High Heels, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha, and Nagisa Oshima's Gohatto. Tracking his collaborative releases likewise became an engaging if demanding pursuit. On Morelenbaum 2/Sakamoto: Casa, he reinterpreted Antonio Carlos Jobim's compositions alongside cellist/arranger Jacques Morelenbaum and vocalist Paula Morelenbaum. Partnerships with Alva Noto, Taylor Deupree, Fennesz, and Christopher Willits—each yielding multiple albums—earned strong regard within ambient and experimental electronic circles.

Sakamoto proved especially active in 2009, issuing the solo acoustic album Playing the Piano alongside the more experimental Out of Noise, and providing the score for Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari's Silver Lion-winning Women Without Men. That year he received the title of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the French Embassy in Tokyo. As a proponent of denuclearization, he curated the NO NUKES 2012 festival, which featured a reunited Yellow Magic Orchestra. After a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis, he responded positively to treatment and persisted in creating music. Standout post-diagnosis recordings included the soundtracks for The Revenant and Nagasaki: Memories of My Son.

April 2017 brought async, his first solo studio album of new material in eight years. A remix collection, async: Remodels, followed that December with contributions from Fennesz, Arca, Cornelius, and additional artists. February 2018 saw Sakamoto and Alva Noto release Glass, a live improvisation captured at Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut. The documentary Coda appeared that June. The next year he scored the Black Mirror episode "Smithereens" and released the concert albums Live in London and Two: Live at the Sydney Opera House. In 2020 he composed the score for the French astronaut drama Proxima.

Sakamoto disclosed that, even as his throat cancer entered remission, rectal cancer had been diagnosed. Though live performance was no longer possible, he shared live streams assembled from brief segments into virtual concerts. Playing the Piano 12122020, an audio document of one such stream, emerged in late 2021, preceded by Garden of Shadows and Light, a full-length collaboration with David Toop. A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto: To the Moon and Back appeared in 2022, featuring interpretations by Thundercat, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Devonté Hynes, and others. Early 2023 brought 12, an album of atmospheric, minimalist pieces, some incorporating the sound of his strained, unsteady breathing as a meditation on mortality. Just months afterward, on March 28, Ryuichi Sakamoto died at age 71. Travesía, a career-spanning compilation selected by film director Alejandro González Iñárritu, arrived in May together with Sakamoto's soundtrack for Kaibutsu (Monster).