Ryuichi Sakamoto 1952-2023

In thecommemorative article about Yukihiro Takahashi, singer and drummer of Yellow Magic Orchestra who died on January 11, 2023, mention was made of the health condition of his bandmate, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who was battling stage-four cancer. Sadly, not even three months had to pass before, on March 28, the keyboardist also passed away.

 

Sakamoto was without doubt the best-known name of the trio. This short essay makes no claim to being a comprehensive monograph, which would require far more space, both with regard to Yellow Magic Orchestra, one of the most influential bands in the history of electronic music, and with regard to his solo output, which nonetheless enjoys a fair cult following in our country (during the post-mortem tributes, the figure of the pianist and multi-award-winning film composer completely overshadowed that of the electronic experimenter and member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, at least in the Italian mainstream press and media).

The aim here is rather to point to a handful of collaborations outside his studio albums, in order to offer an unconventional artist's portrait that gives full weight to the eclecticism of a man who could move between the most commercial pop and the most extreme experimentation, traversing the many shades between the two opposites without ever contradicting himself.

The selection is of course just one of many possible ones, since Sakamoto was sought out as a collaborator by the most disparate artists, ending up playing on hundreds of other people's records, often arranging and/or producing them as well.

Many of the tracks selected are deliberately little known to the Italian alternative audience (indeed, in most cases, little known to any audience outside Japan), since digging up yet again the admittedly splendid "Forbidden Colours" would not add much to his profile.

 

Yoshitaka Minami – "モンロー・ウォーク" ("Monroe Walk"), 1979

OndaRock has already written about this track on the occasion of the feature devoted to the most iconic city pop songs. Readers are referred to that piece.

It can be added here that Sakamoto is not the author of the track, which was composed by Minami himself, but he took part as arranger and keyboardist.

Arranged in a radically different way by Mitsuo Hagita, it was also recorded by Hiromi Go in 1980, with the title changed to "セキシー・ユー" ("Sexy You").

Whereas Sakamoto opted for a groove of synthesizers and a setup closer to disco musicHagita placed at the center the sound of a steel pan and distorted funk guitars. The original version reached number 38 on the Japanese charts, while this second version climbed as high as number 11.

  

Kazumi Watanabe – "アカサカ・ムーン" ("Akasaka Moon"), 1979

Watanabe is one of Japan's finest guitarists and one of the cornerstones of jazz fusion worldwide. His career is deeply intertwined with Sakamoto's: he's responsible for the gorgeous solos featured on the album "Thousand Knives Of Ryuichi Sakamoto" (1978), as well as those found on the Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Live At Greek Theater 1979".

Sakamoto, for his part, plays keyboards on several of Watanabe's records, and in 1979 produced both "Kylyn" and the double live album "Kylyn Live".

The selected track is taken precisely from "Kylyn": Watanabe plays guitar and bass on it fretlesswhile Sakamoto plays piano and synthesizer. It's an intimate piece, far removed from the acrobatic jazz-rock Watanabe is known for, yet no less virtuosic, with the two chasing each other through swirling runs of notes in a space thick with echo.

 

Syuko Sakai/Ryuichi Sakamoto – "コンピューターおばあちゃん" ("Computer obachan")

The original version was released in March 1981 by Cosmic Invention, a short-lived band of teenage musicians who at the time earned the affectionate nickname "Yellow Magic Orchestra junior". It's a playful piece of synth-pop that tells the story of a grandmother so clever that her grandchildren regard her as being like a computer.

Sakamoto recognizes its potential and decides to rework it, entrusting the vocals to child singer Syuko Sakai, in what would remain his only foray into that particular corner of music. 

The unusual duo thus recorded two new versions of the track: one would air aired in December 1981 during the historic children's television program "みんなのうた" ("Minna no uta"/"Everyone's Songs"), the other was released that same month as a single. The most effective of the two is the latter, a techno-kayo anthem with an irresistible rhythm, its snare drum mixed at an extremely high volume, and riffs synthesizer worthy of Gary Numan.

It is without a doubt one of the greatest children's songs in the Japanese language.

 

Kiyoshiro Imawano + Ryuichi Sakamoto – "い・け・な・いルージュマジック" ("Ikenai Rouge Magic"), 1982

Imawano was the mastermind and voice of RC Succession, a band with an unusual trajectory that, after developing a bizarre blend of anarchic folk rock in the early Seventies, became singlehandedly responsible for introducing punk aesthetics and attitude into Japanese music, particularly starting with the album "Rhapsody" (1980).

In 1982, just as the band's popularity was skyrocketing, Imawano and Sakamoto decided to collaborate and released a joint single. Their pairing is particularly curious, since the two personalities could hardly be more different: Sakamoto is an elegant dandy with an academic background, while Imawano is a post-hippy who wears ragged clothes and seems to treat being out of tune as an asset.

The track somehow channels both characters, with an instrumental backing that sounds new wave, dominated by a geometric rhythm and Sakamoto's keyboards, sabotaged by Imawano's raspy, ramshackle vocals (and, further back in the mix, also by the guitars of Nakaido "Chabo" Reichi, already a member of RC Succession and, many years later, composer of the soundtrack for the celebrated anime "Serial Experiments Lain"). 

The result is a synth-punk anthem that, against all odds, won over the public, climbing all the way to number 1 on the singles chart and selling 414,000 copies.

The two performed it live on television three times, the most legendary of which remains the one for the music program "The Best Ten", where Imawano caused a scandal by spitting into a camera (specifically, in the following video at 2'30''… but it's worth watching in full).

 

Yumi Matsutoya, Kazumasa Oda, Kazuo Zaitsu – "今だから” (“Ima dakara”), 1985

For this track, released only as a single, there's a display of star power probably never seen again in the history of Japanese music: the three credited names alone would be enough, namely Matsutoya, the queen of Japanese singer-songwriter pop (by the end of 2022 she had racked up twenty-six number-one albums across half a century of career), Oda, leader of the legendary soft rock band Off Course, and Zaitsu, singer of Tulip, a rather popular folk-pop group during the Seventies.

Joining them, behind the scenes, are three members of the then-inactive Sadistic Mika Band, namely Tsugutoshi Goto on bass, Masayoshi Takanaka on guitar (already an established solo artist at the time, often charting with his largely instrumental records) and Yukihiro Takahashi on drums.

Takahashi had recently disbanded Yellow Magic Orchestra, but had remained on good terms with the other two members: it's therefore no surprise to find him on this project alongside Sakamoto, who plays keyboards on it, but above all handles the entire arrangement, giving life to a splendid techno kayo anthem with a city pop aftertaste.

Number 1 on the charts and 367,000 copies sold in four months.

 

Caetano Veloso – "Lindeza”, 1991

The one with Veloso is a top-tier cross-cultural encounter, to which Sakamoto adapts effortlessly, also considering his love for Brazilian music.

The two meet through Arto Lindsay, immediately hitting it off. Sakamoto ends up playing on “Neide Candolina” and “Lindeza”, both from the album “Circuladô”, one of Veloso's best.

The second one is arranged entirely by Sakamoto, who plays piano, double bass and synthesized strings on it. It almost sounds like a marriage between bossa nova and the acoustic ballads of David Sylvian.

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Satoshi Tomiie – "Tong Poo” live, 1992

An episode that was unfortunately never included on any official album, but of which, luckily, video documentation survives.

Always interested in electronic avant-garde music, Sakamoto took notice of young talent Satoshi Tomiie, who at the time had already produced house music classics of the caliber of “Tears” (with Frankie Knuckles e Robert Owens) and “I’ll Be Your Friend” (credited to Owens alone). 

After bringing Tomiie in to collaborate on the album “Heartbeat”, on February 6, 1992 Sakamoto brought him along to the historic Budokan stage for a four-hand piano performance of “Tong Poo”, a Yellow Magic Orchestra classic. The result is a blazing, chaotic and thoroughly joyful duet, in which Tomiie gets to prove that, after all, some DJs can do more than just push a few buttons.

 

Akina Nakamori – "Not Crazy To Me“, 1993 

Nakamori is one of the two idols who dominated the Japanese Eighties (the other being Seiko Matsuda), racking up a staggering seventeen albums and twenty-one singles that hit number 1 between 1982 and 1990.

As often happens in the world of idols, however, the glittering facade concealed a private life marked by fragility and depression, which culminated in a suicide attempt in 1989. After that event, Nakamori scaled back her ties with the music industry, releasing only three singles over the following three years.

Only in 1993 did she return with an album of new material, preceded by a single containing two songs written and produced by Sakamoto. More than the ballad “Everlasting Love“, it's “Not Crazy To Me” that stands out, where Nakamori – her voice darker and more androgynous than ever – reveals herself to be perfectly at ease on an atmospheric house track.

The single peaked at number 10 and sold 200,000 copies: a more than respectable result, but one that effectively marked the end of the singer's imperial period. That said, “Not Crazy To Me” remains among her finest work, as does the album it comes from, “Unbalance+Balance” (number 4, and itself a 200,000-copy seller).

 

Miki Imai – "Martiniqueの海風” (“Martinique no umikaze”), 1994

A hugely popular figure, able to hold her place among the jet set throughout the Nineties, alternating sophisticated pop with commercial ballads, always delivered with a certain interpretive grace. Sakamoto produces three songs for her on the album “A Place In The Sun” (1994, number 2 and 800,000 copies sold). Of these, the best is probably “Martinique no umikaze”, a hybrid of bossa nova and downtempo.

That same year he also calls on Imai to duet on his 二人の果て” (“Futari no hate”), an intimate jazz ballad released, without much success, as a single from the album “Sweet Revenge”.

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto – "Love And Hate (Marshall Jefferson Mix)“, 1994

La original version of the track, written and sung by Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, is part of the album “Sweet Revenge”. Worth noting is this little-known reworking, included on the remix album “Hard Revenge”.

It's produced by Marshall Jefferson, who keeps Johnson's spoken-word denunciation of homophobia, racial and class discrimination front and center, while at the same time immersing the track in the dreamy, melancholy atmosphere typical of the Chicago house school.

 

Miki Nakatani with Ryuichi Sakamoto – "砂の果実” (“Suna no kajitsu”), 1997

In January 1997 Sakamoto releases as a single the ballad “The Other Side Of Love”, sung in English by his daughter Miu under the pseudonym Sister M. The track is a huge success: it reaches number 6 and sells 722,000 copies.

Two months later Nakatani, a singer devoted to refined singer-songwriter pop, releases this version in Japanese, using the same instrumental backing.

While it doesn't match the success of the original (it still reaches number 10 and sells 200,000 copies), it is actually superior, if only for the gulf between Nakatani's interpretive skill and that of a still-green, very young Sakamoto.

 

Kinki Kids – “イノセント・ウォーズ” (“Innocent Wars”), 1998

Kinki Kids are a duo idols launched by Johnny Entertainment in 1997, who from that year through 2023 managed to send all forty-six of their singles to number 1 on the Japanese charts (a record, of course).

Despite being an openly commercial project, some of Japan's finest musicians worked behind the scenes for them: from Tatsuro Yamashita to Takuro Yoshida, by way of Sakamoto himself, who for the 1998 “B Album” crafts this boisterous, layered dance-pop track, complete with a nod to "Smoke On The Water" by the Deep Purple.

Like much of the duo's music, it is unfortunately not available on any streaming service.

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto – "Energy Flow“, 1999

In Japan, the best-selling record of Sakamoto's career is the maxi-single “ウラBTTB” (“Ura BTTB”), which hit number 1 in June 1999, selling 1.55 million copies.

The success is down to the track “Energy Flow”, used as the soundtrack for a commercial forenergy drink Regain: five minutes of gentle, delicately fingered piano chords that clearly manage to strike the right chords. It's the only instrumental to have ever topped the Japanese weekly charts.

It isn't part of the near-identically titled studio album “BTTB”, released the previous year, at least as far as the Japanese market is concerned (it was later added to the international version, released afterwards).

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto + David Sylvian – "World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)“, 2003

Released as a maxi-single in October 2003, this is a track that deserves far greater recognition. Ambient piano pop, with a rhythm downtempo and glitchy crackles, superbly performed by the ever-reliable Sylvian, it has nothing to envy in the many classics the duo has co-credited in the past.

The lyrics are a lament that manages to be at once an introspective analysis and an ecumenical sigh over the planet's environmental degradation, without ever slipping into easy rhetoric:

"I want to break the indifference of the days, I want a consciousness that makes me fully aware. […] I saw a face, it was a face I didn't know, its sadness told me everything about my own. […] I want to travel by night, across the steppes and beyond the seas, I want to understand the cost of all that is lost. […] She doesn't laugh, we've gone from comedy to commerce, and she can't feel the ground she's walking on. I move away, and I don't sleep well at night, and even though I know it's right, what can you do about it?".

 

Mondo Grosso feat. Ryuichi Sakamoto (vocal: Hikari Mitsushima) – “In This World”, 2022

A high-profile collaboration, with Sakamoto playing piano on a track by Mondo Grosso (stage name of Shinichi Osawa), one of the best-known Japanese DJs and producers. 

The lyrics were written by UA (real name Kaori Hasegawa), an r&b singer quite popular in the late Nineties, while the vocal part is entrusted to Hikari Mitsushima, a much-loved actress known to Western cinephiles in particular as the star of "Love Exposure" by Sion Sono. 

The track is an epic deep house ride, available in two versions: the one regularincluded on the album "Big World" (2022), and the one extended, released as a digital single.