During the December of 1996 Sakamoto, composed the entirety of an hour-long orchestral work entitled "Untitled 01" and released as the album Discord (1998). 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. Heartbeat (1991) and Sweet Revenge (1994) features Sakamoto's collaborations with a global range of artists. Beauty (1989) features a tracklist that combines pop with traditional Japanese and Okinawan songs, as well as guest appearances by Jill Jones, Robert Wyatt, Brian Wilson and Robbie Robertson. As his solo career began to extend outside Japan in the late 1980s, Sakamoto's explorations, influences and collaborators also developed further. Sakamoto would alternate between exploring a variety of musical styles, ideas and genres-captured most notably in his 1983 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia-and focusing on a specific subject or theme, such as the Italian Futurism movement in Futurista (1986).
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO CHASM SERIES
While primarily focused on the piano and synthesizer, this series of albums included collaborations with artists such as Sylvian, David Byrne, Thomas Dolby, Nam June Paik and Iggy Pop. Sakamoto released a number of solo albums during the 1980s. In 1982, Sakamoto worked on another collaboration with Sylvian, a single entitled "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music". Also in 1980, Sakamoto released the single "War Head/Lexington Queen", an experimental synthpop and electro record, and began a long-standing collaboration with David Sylvian, when he co-wrote and performed on the Japan track "Taking Islands In Africa". Song "Riot in Lagos", which is considered an early example of electro music (electro-funk).The 1980 release of "Riot in Lagos" was listed by The Guardian in 2011 as one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music. In 1980 Sakamoto released the solo album B-2 Unit, which has been referred to as his "edgiest" record and is known for the electronic 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. 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. Sakamoto released his first solo album Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto in mid-1978 with the help of Hideki Matsutake-Hosono also contributed to the song "Thousand Knives". He also sang on several songs, such as "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" (1983). 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). Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, The group's work has had a lasting influence across genres, ranging from hip hop and techno to acid house and general melodic music.
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO CHASM FULL
So, the music goes around the world and comes full circle.”Īfter working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in 1978. One of Sakamoto's classical influences was Claude Debussy, who he described as his "hero" and stated that “Asian music heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. He was also trained in classical music and began experimenting with the electronic music equipment available at the university, including synthesizers such as the Buchla, Moog, and ARP. He studied ethnomusicology there with the intention of becoming a researcher in the field, due to his interest in various world music traditions, particularly the Japanese (especially Okinawan), Indian and African musical traditions. with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. Sakamoto entered the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1970, earning a B.A. He concurrently pursued a solo career, if ever anyone painted pictures with sound, Ryuichi Sakamoto supercedes them all. Gaining major success in 1978 as a member of the electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto served on keyboards and sometimes vocals. More today from that Japanese musician, activist, composer, record producer, writer, singer, pianist, and actor based in Tokyo and New York.