Celebrated Japanese composer and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto has died aged 71.
The musician had been treated for oropharyngeal cancer in 2014. In January 2021 he shared that while his throat cancer had gone into remission, he had developed rectal cancer and was undergoing treatment after a successful surgery.
On his website he wrote, “From now on, I will be living alongside cancer. But, I am hoping to make music for a little while longer.”
His most recent album 12 was released in January. The record is a series of minimalist soundscapes overlayed with sparse and haunting piano. Each track’s title is just a simple eight figure identifier noting the date that it was created. The album received high praise from music critics, who have followed the composers work since he first emerged in the 1970s.
Sakamoto first came to prominence as the co-founder of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, who were pioneers of electronic music. In the late 1970’s Sakamoto began releasing his own music, as well as later collaborating with a wide range of artists including Holly Johnson, Towa Tei, David Sylvian, Ingrid Chavez, Youssou N’Dour, John Cage, Bill Friswell, Iggy Pop and David Byrne.
One of his best-known works in the 1983 soundtrack to the World War II drama Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. The film starred David Bowie, and Sakamoto also acted in the movie. He would go on to appear in several other projects but would give up acting to concentrate on his music. One unexpected acting role he did sign on for through was playing a film director in the music video for Madonna’s song Rain.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Sakamoto released many records and scored several successful films. He won an Academy Award for his work alongside David Byrne and Cong Su in creating the score to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. He also created the soundtrack to Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.
Sakamoto continued making music, in 2009 he released Playing the Piano a striking record that saw him playing sedate solo piano versions of his most famous works. In 2017 he shared async which was filled with field recordings, unusual samples and spoken word snippets. It was given a remix treatment with artists including Arca, Johann Johannsson, Yves Tumor, Cornelius and Oneohtrix Point Never signing up to reinterpret the tracks.
Sakamoto passed away last Tuesday, his death was announced today following his funeral.
OIP Staff
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