Ryuichi Sakamoto Has Passed Away

via @KorgUSA

"We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto. He was a trailblazing composer and producer who scored films such as the 'Last Emperor' and 'The Revenant' to name a few. He was a pioneer of electronic pop music by founding the 'Yellow Magic Orchestra' which produced hits on synthesizers and sequencers in the 70s and 80s. He will be missed 😔"

Indeed. He created magic.

Two of my favorites below.

via Wikipedia:

"Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍一[a], Sakamoto Ryūichi, January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023) was a Japanese composer, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres.

Sakamoto began his career while at university in the 1970s as a session musician, producer, and arranger. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of YMO. He concurrently pursued a solo career, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in 1978. Two years later, he released the album B-2 Unit. It included the track "Riot in Lagos", which was significant in the development of electro and hip hop music. He went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists, David Sylvian, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz among them. Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.

As a film-score composer, Sakamoto won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and 2 Golden Globe Awards. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film-score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit. His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987), after which he continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). On occasion, Sakamoto also worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games. In 2009, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France for his contributions to music."
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

video upload by Decca Records

"Official music video for Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'."

YMO Technopolis Live

video upload by matrixsynth