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Ryuichi Sakamoto RIP |
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BrufordFreak 
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Honorary Collaborator Joined: January 25 2008 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 8266 |
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 Topic: Ryuichi Sakamoto RIPPosted: April 12 2023 at 09:28 |
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Definitely one of my most revered musicians, composers, performers, activisits, and humans on the planet! I am so sad that the cancers that he fought so hard against over the past decade finally took him down. I feel so lucky to have his example of courage and humanity singed permanently into my soul.
I can think of few artists who travelled with ease and grace (and success) into so many realms of music. Always an experimenter, always curious about the nature and many, many forms of sound, I have no no other artist in my music collection of the quantity and quality of Ryuichi's contributions. I love his work with the Morelenbaums, Arto Lindsay, and David Sylvian, his award winning film soundtracks, his 20th Century collaborations with Carsten Nicolai and Christian Fennesz. His final solo release, which kind of conveys his increasing attunement to the sounds in and around his body as it failed him, called async, released in 2017, may be my favorite thing he ever did (though I LOVE his first solo release, Illustrated Music Encyclopedia [1986--1984 in Japanese], 1996, 2009's Playing the Piano, as well as his gorgeous 1995 concerto composed for Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto). Rest in Peace, Ryuichi! You represent the Best of Mankind! Edited by BrufordFreak - April 12 2023 at 09:29 |
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Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
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Steve Wyzard
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Joined: March 30 2017 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 2710 |
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Posted: April 12 2023 at 13:16 |
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Truly a great loss - no doubt many a graduate/doctoral thesis/dissertation will be attempted on the study/analysis of his voluminous oeuvre.
I was first exposed to his music through the 2 songs he contributed to the 1985 sampler Piano One on the Private Music label. I highly recommend his 2012 album Three, which is a re-imagination/transcription of many of his most famous pieces for piano/violin/cello.
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Manuel
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Joined: March 09 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13481 |
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Posted: April 13 2023 at 05:46 |
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Sad news. May he rest in peace.
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moshkito
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Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 17823 |
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Posted: April 13 2023 at 07:03 |
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Hi, This is gonna make me cry for a while ... as you folks know, there are few musicians out there that I discuss and mention consistently, and Ryuichi has been one of them for a very long time, and not so much for the Soundtracks, I think I have 9 or 10 of them, but also some of the albums ... the trilogy of "Beauty", "Heartbeat" and "Neo Geo" are outstanding and a treat, but sadly, not always heard. "Amore" is in my heart. The title cut "Heartbeat" is in my heart, and even the title cut from "Neo Geo" stand out with Iggy Pop doing the honors ... you have never heard him as calm and good as this! Soundtrack wise: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence The Last Emperor The Sheltering Sky The Handmaid's Tale High Heels Tokyo Decadence Wild Palms Little Buddha The Revenant All of these are special and when you listen to them, you can see how much they helped the films. "Little Buddha" gets some extra marks for some wonderful classical pieces including one with a soprano that will raise the hairs on your heart ... it is simply outstanding and beautiful. Even more credit should be given for "The Last Emperor" that he shared the OSCAR with David Byrne ... and the main story in it? David did all the Eastern Music and Ryuichi did all the Western Music ... and you simply do not see that kind of knowledge and flexibility in most musicians in the rock world ... EVER. An amazing feat and a very well deserved Oscar. RIP indeed, and I go back to the first moment of YMO ... when Guy Guden ripped it up left and right and deservedly so on his show ... the other members were not forgotten either, and all of them have received a lot of exposure. Edited by moshkito - April 13 2023 at 07:06 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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BrufordFreak
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Honorary Collaborator Joined: January 25 2008 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 8266 |
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Posted: April 13 2023 at 16:36 |
Can't believe his passing flew under my radar! I thought you, Pedro, would have known about it. Anyway, yes, I can honestly say that I've never responded so deeply, so emotionally, to the death announcement of anyone like this (at least since the passing of Peter O'Toole or gun-slaying of Christina Grimme). In fact, the depth of my response really caught me by surprise. I love so much of his music--you mention many of my favorites "Amore" (in all its forms) and "Heartbeat", to be sure, as well as "Risky." And I absolutely adore all of the piano, chamber, and orchestrated versions of all of his "hits". Perhaps a mention should go out to his amazing "World Citizen (I Won't Be Disappointed)" releases/collaborations with David Sylvian and many, many others. And, again, if you haven't heard async or watched Coda, you are in for a real treat--art at its most human level. I've been listening/watching his music and videos for two days now and I'm still deeply emotional. This feels like losing a brother....
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Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
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moshkito
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Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 17823 |
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Posted: April 14 2023 at 04:09 |
Hi, Have been aware for some time that he wasn't doing well, but stayed on it as much as possible, although I have mostly stuck with Guy's playing of the music, specially the other members of YMO and the whole family trees, which have been a part of Guy's shows for over 40 years (Space Pirate Radio). I guess one could say, I should not complaint as I had a lot of wonderful moments listening to all that stuff and remember them fondly, but Ryuichi for me is one of the top musicians I love deeply ... Vangelis is the other, specially for his anti-commercial stance and comments ... and of course tea-spoons ... that no one believes me is true and in all his albums! I just was not sure what to say ... I was much more poetic when Daevid Allen went away, and a lot of the feeling of music taking you to different places going away, when Edgar Froese died ... and then ... Klaus Schulze ... I still play so much of Klaus' material these days, and most of it from the "Works" era, when it was improvised and just free form with many other folks ... "My Ty She", "Cucconing" and several other pieces are heaven for my mind! I miss, and love dearly "Sebastian in Traum". I think that at 72, the passing of any of these folks no longer surprises me, and I know that my time will come also ... and that writing another poem, is not going to get any more folks to read it anyway ... so it doesn't bother me much ... but the inspiration that those folks gave me ... is second to none. Although I'm truly scared as to how I feel when Guy goes, my old roommate and spawn-runner (Goon expression!) ... he will never say thank you, but I put up the money (produced?) his album (1k of them) and his first t-shirt (200 I think it was not sure!) ... because what he did with the music at a station that didn't give a poop about music, and some folks that were into the dope and the star, and couldn't give a second to music!
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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BrufordFreak
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Honorary Collaborator Joined: January 25 2008 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 8266 |
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Posted: April 14 2023 at 05:51 |
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I didn't know Guy was actually a long-time friend of yours! No wonder you mention his Space Radio program so often.
Yes, of course I understand that once we hit our 70s it's only natural that we might pass into that good night, but . . . I'm still 20!!! My deep feelings for Ryuichi Sakamoto come, I think, from my long association and attachment to his music. When I was expanding my musical interests and education beyond the radio- and media-friendly realms of the Anglo-American mainstream, beginning my explorations of classical, jazz, and international "world" musics, along came Ryuichi, David Sylvian, the Cocteau Twins, ECM records, Paul Weller, Amadus, Dexter Gordon, and Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn and life was really, really good!
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Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
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cemego
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Posted: April 20 2023 at 23:25 |
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I will miss my Yellow Magic Orchestra. After losing Yukihiro Takahashi, then shortly after, Ryuichi Sakamoto, I am really suffering. It is interesting how Haruomi Hosono (the last member) is the oldest and still alive. YMO was great, but ALL of each of their solo outings were/are wonderful.
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listen to streaming stuff! no commercials!
http://wmom.servemp3.com:8000/listen.pls |
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moshkito
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Posted: April 21 2023 at 06:59 |
Hi, We met at SB City College, in 1971, I think ... maybe 1972. We shared two apartments that couldn't make it until we got a 3rd and were there for 4 years plus, and it was during that time, that Guy was able to get on the air and in January 27th, 1974 his show started, although he says there were versions of the show before, I believe. I did not start "recording" some of his shows until almost a couple of months later as I did not have a cassette player then. Last year I finally gave him over 350 hours of his shows from 1974 on .. . with about 30 or 40 hours from 1974. I was lucky I mp3'd all the cassettes I had around 2000, before most of them started failing. Guy, probably should get the credit for a lot of musicians, although we both had a curious eye and ear, for music, and he ended up having a show where he played the stuff ... something that the other folks at the station did not do without making smart ass remarks about music that was not known or important. Thus, you know how so many things I talk about came to fruition ... and were played ... on his special show. The other weekly shows were not as heavily "import", though they still had an abundance of European stuff. In my book, few people, have as much of an ear for so much music as Guy does/did, on top of the fact that he can also make sense of the weirdest and oddest stuff you ever heard ... even Lectronic Music (Harrison) might make sense for him, so to speak! And HE PLAYED IT! But Ryuichi opened up an incredible list of folks from Japan that became a part of his show, and our collections. As I went to the movies more (couldn't buy it in the 90's), the soundtracks kept me alive, with a few things here and there. Thus, he is, by far one of the best soundtrack folks in my book, and I would rank him (if I had the guts!) next to Maurice Jarre, Ennio Morricone, and a handful of folks whose music is impossible to forget in a movie!
Edited by moshkito - April 21 2023 at 07:01 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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moshkito wrote: