Ryuichi Sakamoto 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.
45 Facts About Ryuichi Sakamoto
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Ryuichi Sakamoto began his career while at university in the 1970s as a session musician, producer, and arranger.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto concurrently pursued a solo career, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in 1978.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists, David Sylvian, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz among them.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and his composition "Energy Flow" was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.
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On occasion, Ryuichi Sakamoto worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto 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, Okinawan, Indian, and African musical traditions.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto was 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.
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In 1975, Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborated with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki to release Disappointment-Hateruma.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto sang on several songs, such as "Kimi ni Mune Kyun".
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In 1980, Ryuichi Sakamoto released the solo album B-2 Unit, which has been referred to as his "edgiest" record and is known for the electronic song "Riot in Lagos", which is considered an early example of electro music, as Ryuichi Sakamoto anticipated the beats and sounds of electro.
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For several tracks on the album, Ryuichi Sakamoto worked with UK reggae producer Dennis Bovell, incorporating elements of afrobeat and dub music.
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In 1983, Ryuichi Sakamoto starred alongside David Bowie in director Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto broadened his musical range with a number of solo albums such Ongaku Zukan, Neo Geo, and Beauty.
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In 1995 Ryuichi Sakamoto released Smoochy, described by the Sound On Sound website as Ryuichi 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.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto teamed with cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and singer Paula Morelenbaum, on a pair of albums celebrating the work of bossa nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborated with Alva Noto to release Vrioon, an album of Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano clusters treated by Nicolai's unique style of digital manipulation, involving the creation of "micro-loops" and minimal percussion.
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In 2005, Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia hired Ryuichi Sakamoto to compose ring and alert tones for their high-end phone, the Nokia 8800.
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In July 2009, Ryuichi Sakamoto was honored as Officier of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the French embassy in Tokyo.
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In 2013, Ryuichi Sakamoto was a jury member at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.
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In 2014, Ryuichi Sakamoto became the first Guest Artistic Director of The Sapporo International Art Festival 2014.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto announced a break from his work while he sought treatment and recovery.
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In 2015, Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the score for the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film, The Revenant, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.
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On June 14,2018, a documentary about the life and work of Ryuichi Sakamoto, entitled Coda, was released.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto subsequently worked with artists such as Thomas Dolby; Aztec Camera, on the Dreamland album; and Imai Miki, co-producing her 1994 album A Place In The Sun.
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In 1996, Ryuichi Sakamoto produced "Mind Circus", the first single from actress Miki Nakatani, leading to a collaboration period spanning 9 singles and 7 albums though 2001.
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In 1994, Japan Football Association asked Ryuichi Sakamoto to compose the instrumental song "Japanese Soccer Anthem".
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Ryuichi Sakamoto began working in films, as a composer and actor, in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, for which he composed the score, title theme, and the duet "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto later composed Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which earned him the Academy Award with fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto went on to compose the score of the opening ceremony for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
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In 2015, Ryuichi Sakamoto teamed up with Inarritu to score his film, The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto acted in several films: perhaps his most notable performance was as the conflicted Captain Yonoi in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, alongside Takeshi Kitano and British rock singer David Bowie.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto played roles in The Last Emperor and Madonna's "Rain" music video.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto then married popular Japanese pianist and singer Akiko Yano in 1982, following several musical collaborations with her, including touring work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto then married his manager, Norika Sora, and they had a child.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto lived primarily in New York City from 1990 until 2020, when he returned to Tokyo.
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On January 21,2021, Ryuichi Sakamoto shared a link on his official pages, which contained a letter announcing that though his throat cancer had gone into remission, he was now diagnosed with rectal cancer, and that he was currently undergoing treatment after a successful surgery.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto died from cancer on March 28,2023, at the age of 71.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto was a member of the anti-nuclear organization Stop Rokkasho and demanded the closing of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto was known as a critic of copyright law, arguing in 2009 that it is antiquated in the information age.
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In 2015, Ryuichi Sakamoto supported opposition to the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the Omura Bay in Henoko, with a new and Okinawan version of his 2004 single "Undercooled" whose sales partially contributed to the "Henoko Fund", aimed to stop the relocation of the base on Okinawa.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto won a number of awards for his work as a film composer, beginning with the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for his score for Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, in 1984.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto contributed to the Academy Award winning soundtrack for Babel with several pieces of music, including the closing theme "Bibo no Aozora".
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Ryuichi Sakamoto won the Golden Pine Award at the 2013 International Samobor Film Music Festival, along with Clint Eastwood and Gerald Fried.