Thank You, Mr. Sakamoto.
As I was watching The GRAMMYs this year, the In Memoriam… section hit when…
…
How did I miss that? 😔
Now I’m watching the Oscars. The In Memoriam… section just happened, and there he is again. It feels like the right time to say… something.
Let’s start here:
Yeah, he made that.
But that’s not my first memory of his music.
I fell in love with a score he did for a little movie from 1987. No, not that film from 1987. This one:
That was 1999. After that, I dove headlong into his music. Well….I tried.
You see, back in 1999, you had to buy music from a store. Those stores broke out music into categories. One of these was labeled “World Music”, a bit of a catch-all where you could find Mr. Sakamoto’s albums. At the time, his albums were imported from Japan, so… they were a bit out of my price range.
After downloading as many tracks as I could from ✌🏽the Internet✌🏽, eventually I came into a bit of money.
That’s when Mr. Sakamoto collaborated with a brilliant couple – the Morelenbaum’s – and made this: Casa.
Then I found Tango, Opus, Risky… how did all of this come from the same mind?
Cut to: 2020
Japan understood the pandemic, so there were no in-person concerts or performances. That’s when Mr. Sakamoto did this:
And then, something I never thought possible. On December 12, 2020, I saw Mr. Sakamoto perform live (via livestream). It felt like a gift made just for me for enduring the pandemic. I woke up at four in the morning to experience it, and it was absolutely worth it.
As of this writing, Mr. Sakamoto’s work is easily accessible on every major streaming platform. I use Apple Music, and their collection of his works seems complete, so, here you go – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ryuichi-sakamoto/271593168.
After taking in all that goodness, look up other greatness that was in Mr. Sakamoto’s orbit like his other work in video games, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Akiko Yano. (Especially Akiko Yano.)
I could go on and on, but it’s time I say good-bye and… thank you. Thank you, Sakamoto-san.