Ryuichi Sakamoto: Anything But Basic
March 6, 2000
Ryuichi Sakamoto has dubbed his latest album, BTTB, an acronym for Back to the Basics, but from the sound of that CD and Cinemage, a collection of the Japanese pop legend’s film score music, his latest direction is anything but a simplistic retreat.
Still, what else would a listener expect from Sakamoto? A pioneer at adopting rock, classical, electronica and world music, he might be called a musical conflict-resolution specialist. Musical genres, and mediums, seem to flow together naturally for Sakamoto, who was born in 1952 and presaged the pop-locking cut-and-paste pastiche and sample-slapping diversions of hip-hop.
Back to the Basics instead refers to Sakamoto’s personal musical history: His first instrument was a piano. After earning a master’s degree with a concentration in electronic and ethnic music at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Sakamoto started finding common ground between rock, jazz and classical music as a founding member of the ’70s Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra. That band laid the groundwork for techno and ambient artists today.
In his solo works, Sakamoto brought together performers as diverse as Iggy Pop, Youssou N’dour, Robbie Robertson and Caetano Veloso for albums that journeyed into jazz, pop, Latin, contemporary classical, gamelan and dub. Scores for Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Sheltering Sky, Snake Eyes and most recently Love is the Devil followed, and Sakamoto scored an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy, among other prizes, for his music for The Last Emperor. He’s also acted in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor and most recently Abel Ferrara’s New Rose Hotel. He has collaborated with numerous artists, including Robert Wilson for THE DAYS BEFORE: Death, Destruction & Detroit III. His most recent multimedia effort and his first opera, last year’s Life, looked back on the major events of the 20th century. Featuring original text by Salman Rushdie, the work gathered more than 150 international artists such as Laurie Anderson, L. Subramaniam and Salif Keita in live and taped performances.
Now touring in support of BTTB and appearing as a solo pianist at the Fillmore on March 18, Sakamoto was persuaded to compose and record new songs for the album by Sony Classical (who has also released Cinemage). The impetus: BTTB’s opening cut, “Energy Flow.” Initially a snippet of music on a Japanese TV commercial for a health tonic, the song struck platinum and became the first instrumental track to hit number one in Japan with a soothing yet moving melody that evokes both Michel Legrand and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
The disc of solo keyboards continues to reveal Sakamoto’s interest in the contrast of Eastern and Western cultures and musical traditions. “Put Your Hands Up” begins like a bit of Beethoven, takes a melodic turn for Carole King-style singer/songwriter melodicism and then seamlessly integrates unexpected flourishes that resemble music straight out of Flower Drum Song.
Other tracks find inspiration in Japanese culture and traditional musical forms: “Train Man” — the theme song for Jiro Asada’s film The Railroad Workers — conjures up the wintry melancholy of the snowy northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The majority of the pieces simply and beautifully explore the legacy of Western classical piano pieces: Modern French composers such as Ravel and Satie make their influence heard in the blue notes scattered like petals throughout “Lorenz & Watson” and the dissonant carnival of “Sonatine.”
In all, BTTB is less minimalist Eno and more elegantly earnest, and the sensitivity of Sakamoto’s performance and compositions, which build quietly in passion and intensity, is striking.
Cinemage offers another perspective on Sakamoto. Displaying the full-blown boldness and grandeur of the composer’s film scores in live recordings, the CD begins with Sakamoto’s arguably most memorable piece of music, “Forbidden Colors.” Here, the theme song to Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence gets its fourth vibrant and sweeping makeover with a full orchestra and somber yet dreamy vocals by David Sylvian. Sakamoto and conductor Yutaka Sado augment The Last Emperor’s traditionally Asian melody with the brilliant and romantic textures of a 70-piece orchestra, which was recorded on the composer’s “f” tour of Asia in 1997. Less familiar pieces such as the early keyboard work “Replica” are transformed with orchestration, and Sakamoto’s theme for the opening ceremonies of the 1993 Barcelona Olympic Games, “El Mar Mediterrani,” includes a spectral special guest appearance by DJ Spooky.
The perfect counterpoint to the stripped-down beauty of BTTB, Cinemage shows what Sakamoto can do with a full palette of musical color, forbidden or not.
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