A musical pioneer

This year was sadly marked by the loss of acclaimed Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952 – 2023). A truly multifaceted artist, Sakamoto was a pianist, record producer, pioneer of electronic music (both as solo artist and founder of technopop super group Yellow Magic Orchestra), as well as an actor and film composer – remarkably, he both scored and acted in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) alongside David Bowie, as well as in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987), for which he won an Oscar for original score.

At home in a diverse range of styles and genres, Sakamoto was a pivotal figure in electronic, pop, world and film music, throughout his long career from the late 1970s to his moving farewell performance in late 2022 and his last solo album 12, which was released in January 2023, two months before his death from cancer. In 2017, the documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda was released, following the composer’s struggle with cancer and the creative challenges during the slow, yet fulfilling, process of creating new and meaningful music.

A scene from Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. © Neo Sora/MUBI

From Bach to Tarkovsky

One of the things that quickly become apparent while watching Coda is Sakamoto’s admiration of film director Andrei Tarkovsky. Greatly influenced by Tarkovsky’s work, Sakamoto was particularly fascinated by the way the Russian director used sound to create unique and rich “auditory textures”. As he puts it: “Tarkovsky’s soundtracks create intimate soundscapes. In a sense, he was a musician.” Inspired by Tarkovsky’s use of Bach chorales, Sakamoto went on to compose solari, his own piece in the spirit of Tarkovsky.

In fact, Sakamoto’s mesmerizing album async (2017) can be viewed as a soundtrack for a nonexistent movie by Tarkovsky. In Life, Life we hear the words from the wonderfully meditative poem And this I dreamt, and this I dream by Arseny Tarkovsky (Andrei’s father):

To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world                                                  Wave follows wave to break on the shore                                                                               On each wave is a star, a person, a bird                                                                                Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave.

Raising awareness

A dedicated environmentalist and activist, Sakamoto was a member of the anti-nuclear organization Stop Rokkasho and supported the closing down of nuclear power plants following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, actively participating in related protests. In 2012, Sakamoto also organized the No Nukes 2012 concert, which featured performances by several groups including Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk.

Sakamoto’s environmental concerns intensified during the last decades of his life. As he relates: “My awareness of environmental crises started to trouble me around 1992. I began to sense danger, feel alarm. The environment wasn’t worsening on its own. There was a link to human activity, which means it could be fixed. But it all depends on the choices humans make. […] The Japanese people need to speak up to those in power. We can’t allow ourselves to get discouraged or complacent. We Japanese have kept too quiet for the past 40-50 years.”

These concerns were an important influence on his work, as exemplified by his work LIFE (1999), which combines music with footage of Hiroshima’s bombing during WWII and the famous line from the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita (“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”) spoken by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father” of the atomic bomb himself.

In tune with nature

According to Sakamoto, the world is full of sounds which we don’t normally hear as “music”. However, he adds, “the sounds are very interesting, musically. So, I have a strong desire to incorporate them into my work, mix them with instruments into one soundscape. A sonic blending that is both chaotic and unified.” Such sonic amalgamate can also take on a metaphysical dimension: “I’m fascinated by the notion of a perpetual sound, one that won’t dissipate over time. I suppose in literary terms it would be like a metaphor for eternity.”

Sakamoto’s profound attunement with the natural world took him on an epic journey from recording sounds in Lake Turkana in northern Kenya (used in his song Only Love Can Conquer Hate) to “fishing the sound” of melting snow in the Arctic Circle, while making numerous other field recordings and visiting key sites like Fukushima’s restricted contamination zone.

In the end, it’s the return to a more natural state of being that seemed to appeal to Sakamoto, in sharp contrast to the unhalted, rapid technological progress. As the composer reveals: “I’m interested in the erosion of technology, such as errors or noises.” His thoughts are illuminating: “Nature is forced into shape. Interestingly, the piano requires re-tuning. We humans say it falls out of tune. But that’s not exactly accurate. Matter is struggling to return to a natural state. […] In short, the piano is tuned by force to please our ears or ideals. It’s a condition that feels natural to us humans. But from nature’s perspective, it’s very unnatural. I think deep inside me somewhere, I have a strong aversion to that.”