Everything you need to know about renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto!

If there is anything that travels boundaries faster than air, it's music. One such musician who passed away recently but leaves behind so many music pieces to cherish is Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto. The man crossed multiple cultural and musical boundaries and achieved an extraordinarily successful career. He aided in building the foundation for electro, synth pop, and techno as one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Early life

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Ryuichi Sakamoto was born in Tokyo on January 17, 1952. Even as a child, he was very much inclined toward music and thus took up piano at the tender age of three. He then started to regularly perform in jazz bands as a high school student. The man got exposed to his audience from the Beatles to Beethoven. Sakamoto was also keen and greatly influenced by avant-garde filmmaking. After graduating from Yellow Magic Orchestra, he then pursued electronic music at the University of Art in Tokyo.

Career in Music and Awards

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The man has achieved not one but many major awards in his career for films like Merry Christmas,  Mr. Lawrence, and The Last Emperor. Moreover, his exemplary albums like Beauty and Neo Geo also received tremendous appreciation, as he experimented with these albums by fusing global textures, classical, and pop. Electronic music, and rhythms. 

The man presented his compositions and predominantly showcased the beauty of the classical genre with outstanding releases such as BTTB and 1996. The musician never stopped contributing music for television series, art installations, films, and even video games. Ryuichi Sakamoto worked tremendously with glitch artists like Alva Noto, Christopher Willits, Fennesz, and Taylor Deupree, in the 21st century. The man received huge acclaim for experimental works like Async and 12 too.

In the YMO days, he also issued his very first solo effort with Thousand Knives Of. Two years after this, the man returned with the B-2 Unit. After the 1983 breakup of YMO, the man chose the road of solo and collaborative work as a full-time venture. Once he started doing that, he brought forward Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, his commercial and artistic breakthrough that very same year. This was the film in which the man also acted alongside David Bowie.

The man’s work never went unappreciated, and the proof of this is The Last Emperor, the work for which he received the Oscar, the Grammy, and the BAFTA Award for the Best Original Score.