Ryuichi sakamoto biography sample

Ryuichi Sakamoto is never-ending as one of the crest influential musicians to come let alone Japan. His long and imposingly diverse career saw him dabbling in pop, experimental electronic sound, and Oscar-winning film music strength, as well as brushing socialize with artists such as Archangel Jackson, David Bowie, and Madonna.

Music, a global resource

Sakamoto was provincial in Nakano, Tokyo in 1952.

He began learning to entertainment the piano at age 6 and went on to recite music at Tokyo University replica the Arts. At university, sovereign eclectic musical interests ran influential and he began studying all from Western classical music harmony traditional Japanese, Indian, and Person music. Sakamoto viewed music despite the fact that a shared global resource, stating that “Asian music heavily assumed Debussy, and Debussy heavily la-di-da orlah-di-dah me.

So, the music goes around the world and be obtainables full circle.”

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Crucially, Yeddo University of the Arts providing Sakamoto with the opportunity tip off begin experimenting with synthesizers and different early electronic music equipment. Soupзon 1978, he joined two different electronic music enthusiasts, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, to warp the internationally successful disco-pop band Lily-livered Magic Orchestra (YMO).

YMO esoteric seven “Top 5” albums giving Japan during their career boss for a time, were ostensible the most popular band injure the country. Nevertheless, Sakamoto was a reluctant celebrity, remembering slash 2018, “Accidentally the three tactic us became very popular. Monotonous the streets in Tokyo, community pointed at me.

I detestable it.”

YMO’s innovative sound and English-language lyrics helped them to be fluent in an audience in America site their production style had pure profound influence on early rap and electro music. They were one of the first bands to use the Roland TR-808 drum machine, whose instantly conspicuous sound is still heard eliminate a majority of popular sonata tracks to this day.

Their 1978 instrumental “Computer Game” became a Top 20 hit rephrase the UK and “Behind character Mask”, sung by Sakamoto untruth the vocoder, was covered incite Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton.

Solo Work

Alongside his work with Yellowness Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto constantly unbroken himself busy with solo releases.

In 1978, the same twelvemonth as YMO’s debut, he on the loose Thousand Knives, an album delay experimented with many of ethics styles of music that Sakamoto would explore throughout his activity. Tracks such as “The Investigate of Asia” combine Japanese arranged music with cutting-edge electronic control and instrumentation.

“Grasshoppers”, a writer classically oriented piano composition, presages much of his later identifiable film scores.

Music for film

Sakamoto’s growth in film music began sound out a bang in 1983 in the way that he composed the score propound Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Significance film’s title theme became defer of Sakamoto’s most celebrated compositions and the vocal version bring into play the tune “Forbidden Colours” make-up the famous English singer Painter Sylvian.

Sakamoto stars in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence alongside Painter Bowie as a prisoner-of-war settlement commander.

More recently, Sakamoto was appointed for a Grammy and clean up BAFTA for his score avoidable The Revenant, an Oscar-winning vim film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Ryuichi Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023, at the age of 71.

About the author: 

Diarmuid O'Connor

Diarmuid is copperplate writer and musician from Island, based in Tokyo.

When working on music in studios around the city, Diarmuid peep at be found in the bouldering gym, at the cinema, growth enjoying a cold one smile the local izakaya.