Ryuichi Sakamoto

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Ryuichisakamoto.jpg Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一 Sakamoto Ryūichi, born January 17, 1952, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese musician, composer, producer and actor.

He attended university as Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he earned a B.A. in music composition and an M.A. with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. Sakamoto recorded his first solo album in 1978, which included the songs "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia".

Around the same time, Sakamoto joined as a member of the internationally successful Japanese synth-rock/synth J-Pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, along with co-founders Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. The band charted a British top 20 hit with "Computer Game" in the late 1970s (and are also remembered for "Technopolis", "Firecracker" and "Tong Poo"), and were a seminal influence on the acid house and techno movements of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sakamoto has collaborated with David Sylvian on a number of singles and most of Sylvian's albums. He has also collaborated with, among others, Fennesz, Towa Tei (originally from the group Deee-Lite), Thomas Dolby, Arto Lindsay, Bill Laswell, Nam June Paik, Youssou N'Dour, Roddy Frame (frontperson for Aztec Camera), Iggy Pop and Caetano Veloso.

He appeared in the 1983 Nagisa Oshima film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence alongside British rock singer David Bowie; he also wrote the film's musical score, and the theme song "Forbidden Colours," sung by Sylvian, became a minor hit. As a long time fan of Virginia Astley's music he produced her 1986 album Hope In A Darkened Heart which included David Sylvian as a guest. He won the Academy Award for his score to the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci film The Last Emperor. He has also written soundtracks for Bertolucci's 1993 film The Little Buddha, Pedro Almodóvar's 1992 film High Heels, Oliver Stone's 1993 television series Wild Palms, John Maybury's 1998 film, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, and Brian De Palma's 1998 film Snake Eyes and 2002 film Femme Fatale.

In 1992, Sakamoto composed the score of the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, telecast live to an audience of over a billion viewers.

In 1998 Italian ethnomusicologist Massimo Milano published Ryuichi Sakamoto. Conversazioni, a collection of essays and conversations.

Recently, Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia hired Sakamoto to compose ring and alert tones for their high-end phone, the Nokia 8800.

Sakamoto was married to a Japanese pianist and singer Akiko Yano, collaborating with her on some of her recordings. They divorced in 2002.

He is also known as a critic of copyright law, arguing that it is antiquated in the information age.

In 2003, Sakamoto collaborated with Alva Noto (an alias of Carsten Nicolai's) to release "Vrioon," an album of Sakamoto's piano clusters treated by Nicolai's unique style of digital manipulation, involving the creation of "micro-loops" and minimal percussion. The two produced this work by passing the pieces back and forth until both were satisfied with the result. This debut, released on German label Raster-Noton, was voted record of the year 2004 in the electronica category by British magazine "The Wire."

In 2005, Sakamoto and Nicolai released "Insen," also on Raster-Noton. This album was produced in a similar manner to Vrioon, although it is somewhat more restrained and minimal.

The character of his method of composition is highly mathematical, influenced by Olivier Messiaen and Iannis Xenakis, using graph theory and mathematical logic.

[edit]

Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law involvement

Recently, Ryuichi Sakamoto led a petition with around 75,000 signs, stating that "whether something is vintage or not is not a matter for government officials to decide". [1]

[edit]