Here's my Pitchfork tribute to world citizen Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died a few days ago.
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YMO lay claim to "techno" in 1983
And here's a playlist I pulled together, a highlights and landmarks guided tour through his prolific genius, from Yellow Magic Orchestra, through solo albums like the still-astonishing B-2 Unit and Esperanto, to collaborations like the gorgeous strangeness of "Bamboo Houses / Bamboo Music" (with David Sylvian) and his wonderful string of albums with Alva Noto.
Here's a really interesting piece by Dan Barrow on Sakamoto's work and the background to it in terms of Japanese politics + culture, at Jacobin.
A piece by David Hudson at the Criterion Daily about Sakamoto: "It All Seems Limitless"
Geeta Dayal has made available for free inspection a piece she wrote about Yellow Magic Orchestra for Groove magazine in 2006, including an interview with Sakamoto. And just a few months ago she wrote this piece about Sakamoto's 12 for 4Columns.
Reminding me that a few years ago I wrote for 4Columns about this compilation of Japanese "interior music" and 4th World sounds, Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990, in which Sakamoto (and Hosono) are both mentioned.
Toop x 2
- a tribute penned for The Wire.
- Sakamoto and "outernationalism", from Ocean of Sound
