Ryuichi Sakamoto

was a Japanese musician, composer, music producer, pianist, keyboardist, singer and actor. His nickname is Kyoju, which means Professor in Japanese.

He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award, BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.

Sakamoto began his career as a session musician, producer, and arranger while he was at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in the mid 1970s. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of YMO. He pursued a solo career at the same time, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in that year, and the album B-2 Unit in 1980. B-2 Unit includes the track "Riot in Lagos", which had a significant influence on the development of electro, hip hop and dance music.

Early life
He was from Tokyo. He was born there on 17 January 1952. He learned music at Tokyo University of the Arts and Tokyo University of Arts graduate school.

Music career
Solo artist
In mid-1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto, with the help of Hideki Matsutake—Hosono also contributed to the song "Thousand Knives". The album experimented with different styles, such as "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia"—in which electronic music was fused with traditional Japanese music—while "Grasshoppers" is a more minimalistic piano song. The album was recorded from April to July 1978 with a variety of electronic musical instruments, including various synthesizers, such as the KORG PS-3100, a polyphonic synthesizer; the Oberheim Eight Voice; the Moog III-C; the Polymoog, the Minimoog; the Micromoog; the Korg VC-10, which is a vocoder; the KORG SQ-10, which is an analog sequencer; the Syn-Drums, an electronic drum kit; and the microprocessor-based Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, which is a music sequencer that was programmed by Matsutake and played by Sakamoto.

In 1980, Sakamoto released his second solo album, B-2 Unit, which has been referred to as his "edgiest" record and is known for the electronic track "Riot in Lagos", which is considered an early example of electro music (electro-funk), as Sakamoto anticipated the beats and sounds of electro. Early electro and hip hop artists, such as Afrika Bambaataa and Kurtis Mantronik, were influenced by the album—especially "Riot in Lagos"—with Mantronik citing the work as a major influence on his electro hip hop group Mantronix. "Riot in Lagos" was later included in Playgroup's compilation album Kings of Electro (2007), alongside other significant electro compositions, such as Hashim's "Al-Naafyish" (1983). The album is also credited with introducing the influential Roland TR-808 drum machine "in the clubs for the first time" with "a new body music" that "foretold the future" of music according to Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC Radio 6 Music.

According to Dusted Magazine, Sakamoto's use of squelching bounce sounds and mechanical beats was later incorporated in early electro and hip hop productions, such as "Message II (Survival)" by Melle Mel and Duke Bootee (1982), "Magic's Wand" (1982) by Whodini and Thomas Dolby, "Electric Kingdom" (1983) by Twilight 22, and The Album (1985) by Mantronix. The 1980 release of "Riot in Lagos" was listed by The Guardian in 2011 as one of the 50 key important events in the history of dance music, at number six on its list. Resident Advisor said the track anticipated the sounds of techno and hip hop music, and that it inspired numerous artists from cities such as Tokyo, New York City and Detroit. Peter Tasker of Nikkei Asia said it was influential on techno, hip hop and house music.

One of the tracks on B-2 Unit, "Differencia" has, according to Fact, "relentless tumbling beats and a stabbing bass synth that foreshadows jungle by nearly a decade". Some tracks on the album also foreshadow genres such as IDM, broken beat, and industrial techno, and the work of producers such as Actress and Oneohtrix Point Never. For several tracks on the album, Sakamoto worked with UK reggae producer Dennis Bovell, incorporating elements of Afrobeat and dub music.The Essential... Yellow Magic Orchestra, Fact According to Pitchfork, "B-2 Unit still sounds futuristic" with tracks such as "E-3A" looking "ahead to Mouse on Mars’ idyllic ’90s electronica."

Also in 1980, Sakamoto released the single "War Head/Lexington Queen", an experimental synthpop and electro record. His collaboration with Kiyoshiro Imawano, "Ikenai Rouge Magic", also topped the Oricon singles chart. (Translation) Sakamoto also began a long-standing collaboration with David Sylvian, when he co-wrote and performed on the Japan track "Taking Islands in Africa" in 1980.

In 1981, Sakamoto collaborated with Talking Heads and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew and Robin Scott for an album titled Left-Handed Dream. According to The Baffler, the album combined "slow, simmering, primeval" techno with "sprawling, raw-edged sci-fi gagaku" using traditional Japanese taiko drums.

Sakamoto worked on another collaboration with Sylvian, a single entitled "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music" in 1982. The song "Bamboo Houses" in particular "accidentally predicted" grime music according to Fact magazine, calling it "the earliest example of proto-grime" with similarities to the Sinogrime subgenre which Wiley and Jammer were known for in the 2000s. Sakamoto's earlier 1978 songs "Grasshoppers" and "The End of Asia" from Thousand Knives also have melodic lines similar to grime or Sinogrime.

Sakamoto began work on his next album Ongaku Zukan in 1982, but it didn't release until 1984. During production, he was one of the first musicians to use the Yamaha DX7, the same year the digital synthesizer released in 1983. He initially used the DX7 for Mari Iijima's debut city pop album Rosé, released in 1983, before using it for his solo album Ongaku Zukan, which eventually released in 1984.

In 1995, Sakamoto released Smoochy, described by the Sound on Sound website as Sakamoto's "excursion into the land of easy-listening and Latin", followed by the 1996 album, which featured a number of previously released pieces arranged for solo piano, violin, and cello.

In the early 2000s, Sakamoto did extensive work in experimental ambient and glitch music. His works in these genres at the time include collaborations with Fennesz.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
He was one of the founders of the music group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). YMO is an English acronym. YMO stands for "Yellow Magic Orchestra", which he formed with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in the late 1970s. The group gained success and became famous at home and abroad. In addition, he released music solo parallel to his work as a member of YMO.

Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as electropop/technopop, synthpop, cyberpunk music, ambient house, and electronica. The group's work has had a lasting influence across genres, ranging from hip hop and techno to acid house and melodic music. Sakamoto was the songwriter and composer for a number of the band's hit songs—including "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" (1978), "Technopolis" (1979), "Nice Age" (1980), "Ongaku" (1983), and "You've Got to Help Yourself" (1983)—while playing keyboards for many of their other songs, including international hits such as "Computer Game/Firecracker" (1978) and "Rydeen" (1979). He also sang on several songs, such as "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" (1983). Sakamoto's composition "Technopolis" (1979) was credited as a contribution to the development of techno music.

Sakamoto's internationally successful composition "Behind the Mask" (1978)—a synthpop song in which he sang vocals through a vocoder—was later covered by a number of international artists, including Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton. "Behind the Mask" was one of the first songs to use a gated reverb effect on the snare drum, a technique that later became popular in 1980s pop music.

A version of Sakamoto's 1978 song "Thousand Knives" was released on Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1981 album BGM. This version was one of the earliest uses of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, for YMO's live performance of "1000 Knives" in 1980 and their BGM album release in 1981.

Classical composer
Other than his own music, Sakamoto has offered musical pieces to other artists and composed soundtracks. Sakamoto began working in films, as a composer and actor, in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). The film's score is best known for Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" instrumental theme. He collaborated with David Sylvian on a vocal version of the theme, "Forbidden Colours"–which became a chart hit in the UK.

In 1985, Sakamoto was commissioned to score a dance composition by New York choreographer Molissa Fenley called Esperanto. The performance itself debuted at the Joyce Theater, to mixed reviews from Anna Kisselgoff at The New York Times which said of Sakamoto's music, that "The sound often resembles a radio shut on and off." The score was subsequently released in Japan by Midi, Inc., and includes contributions from Arto Lindsay and YAS-KAZ. Jen Monroe of The Baffler said the sample-based music "manages to be unremittingly gorgeous, aggressive, angular, and lush."

Sakamoto later composed Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Last Emperor (1987). The soundtrack was evaluated and won an Academy Award for Original Music Score by a Japanese artist for the first time. In that same year, Sakamoto composed the score to the cult-classic anime film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise.

Other films scored by Sakamoto include Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky (1990) and The Little Buddha (1993); Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels (1991); Oliver Stone's Wild Palms (1993); John Maybury's Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998); Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes (1998) and Femme Fatale (2002); Oshima's Gohatto (1999); Jun Ichikawa's (director of the Mitsui ReHouse commercial from 1997 to 1999 starring Chizuru Ikewaki and Mao Inoue) Tony Takitani (2005);, Hwang Dong-hyuk's, The Fortress (2017); and Andrew Levitas's Minamata (2020) starring Johnny Depp, Minami, and Bill Nighy.

Sakamoto also composed video game music. In 1989, he composed music for one of the first CD-ROM games, Far East of Eden: Ziria for the PC Engine. In 1998, he composed the startup sound for Sega's Dreamcast console. In the 2000s, he composed music for the Dreamcast game LOL: Lack of Love (2000) and the PlayStation 2 games Seven Samurai 20XX (2004) and Dawn of Mana (2006).

According to Resident Advisor, Sakamoto's classical compositions were influential in helping to define modern classical music. Sakamoto's classical compositionsespecially "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and "Bibi no Aozara"have been covered and sampled by numerous musicians.

Music producer
Sakamoto's production credits represent a prolific career in this role. In 1977, he was the arranger and lead keyboardist for Taeko Ohnuki's city pop album Sunshower.  In 1983, he produced Mari Iijima's debut city pop album Rosé, shortly before Yellow Magic Orchestra disbanded. This was the first album where Sakamoto used a Yamaha DX7, making him one of the digital synthesizer's first users in its year of release, before using it for his solo album Ongaku Zukan released the following year.

 Acting work 
Sakamoto has also acted in several movies:  His most notable roles were as the conflicted antagonist Captain Yonoi in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, alongside Takeshi Kitano and English rock singer David Bowie, and as the evil antagonist Masahiko Amakasu (a real-life Japanese officer, murderer and movie boss) in The Last Emperor. He also appeared as a music director in Madonna's "Rain" music video.

Sakamoto began working in films, as a composer and actor, in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), where he starred alongside David Bowie. In a 2016 interview, Sakamoto reflected on his time acting in the film, saying he "hung out" with Bowie every evening for a month while filming on location. He remembered Bowie as "straightforward" and "nice" while lamenting that he never mustered the courage to ask for Bowie's help while scoring the film's soundtrack as he believed Bowie was too "concentrated" on acting.

He was the subject of Elizabeth Lennard's 1985 documentary Tokyo Melody, which mixes studio footage and interviews with Sakamoto about his musical philosophy in a nonlinear format, against a backdrop of 1980s Tokyo.

Sakamoto also played roles in The Last Emperor (as Masahiko Amakasu) and Madonna's "Rain" music video.

Sports work
In 1992, Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

In 1994, Japan Football Association asked Ryuichi Sakamoto to compose the instrumental song "Japanese Soccer Anthem".

This instrumental song played at the beginning of Japan Football Association-sponsored events, such as Emperor's Cup matches.

Activist
In late years he has often spoken about the issues of environmental problems, including against nuclear reactors after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and peace, including against nuclear weapons, in the media.Smith, Steve.  "Sylvan Sounds, Meant to Be Seen," New York Times. 19 October 2010; excerpt, "... a skillful keyboardist, he is a pop-culture hero in his native Japan, a composer of film scores and symphonic works, a record producer and entrepreneur, an actor and, most recently, an environmental activist"; retrieved 7 June 2012.

Personal life
Sakamoto's first of three marriages occurred in 1972, but ended in divorce in 1974—Sakamoto had a daughter from this relationship. Sakamoto then married popular Japanese pianist and singer Akiko Yano in 1982, following several musical collaborations with her, including touring work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Sakamoto's second marriage ended in August 2006, 14 years after a mutual decision to live separately—Yano and Sakamoto raised one daughter, J-pop singer Miu Sakamoto. Translation He has lived with his manager and wife Norika Sora since around 1990 until his death and has two children with her.

On 10 July 2014, Sakamoto released a statement and said that he had been diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer in late June. He announced that he was taking a break from his work while he went through treatment and recovery.

Sakamoto died as a result of his ongoing battle with rectal cancer on 28 March 28 2023 in Tokyo, which was discovered in 2021. His death was announced on April 2 through his website, after his funeral was held that included family members and close friends.

Notes

References

Further reading

Other websites


 Commmons – Sakamoto's record label
 Raster-Noton 





Category:1952 births
Category:2023 deaths
Category:Musicians from Tokyo
Category:Actors from Tokyo
Category:Environmentalists
Category:Nonviolence advocates
Category:Cancer deaths in Japan