Remembering Ryuchi

A few days ago Ryuchi Sakamoto left us.

Anyone who comes across Sakamoto's music can find something to like.

For me, right now, my favorite is from his biopic Coda, though it's not actually "his" music as a composer. It is the quiet scenes of him playing J.S. Bach on the piano in his New York apartment. These remind me that underneath all else he was a masterful musician.

This can seem a little in contrast with the kooky electronic-music guy.

The climate change activist.

The person who put a plastic bucket on his head and went out into the rain to hear what it sounded like.

The person who played on a damaged piano that was submerged in the tidal wave that hit Fukushima after 311.

He was all of these, and more.

When I read his obituary in the NYT there was a lot of emphasis on the Sakamoto I didn't know. The young one. The electro-pop, synth-music pioneer. 

The Sakamoto I knew came later. The classically-aligned, piano-playing, film-composing one.

I remember him for his film scores - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor (Oscar winner, Best Original Musical Score), The Revenant.

I knew he had cancer and was very ill, but still his death at 71 years old came as a surprise.

Remembering Ryuchi means keeping these memories in-mind, and connecting them with my own past.

Listening to a friend practicing the theme from Mr. Lawrence on a Yamaha grand at NOAH studio in Toritsudaigaku, trying to get it just right for a recording.

Talking to a co-worker who had once served as Sakamoto's partner Norika Sora's publicist about the severity and heavy toll of his illness.

Seeing David Byrne at The New Yorker festival and making the connection that he was Sakamoto's collaborator on the score of The Last Emperor.

Reading an anecdote in the NYT about how Sakamoto got completely disgusted with the background music at his favorite restaurant in New York, put together a playlist, and politely but firmly asked the proprietor to play it instead of his own choices.

These memories remind me of the things one can do with one’s life.

Next on my watchlist is the movie Minamata, and Sakamoto's last performance at NHK Studio 509.

Here is the NYT's obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/arts/music/ryuichi-sakamoto-dead.html

Here is a (paywall) recording of the last live performance: https://special.musicslash.jp/sakamoto2022/