Recorded and filmed as he was dying of most cancers, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Opus” — the Japanese movie composer’s posthumous album and documentary of the identical identify — is clearly meant to be his last farewell.
As an album, it’s becoming that the 20-song, hour-and-a-half recording of sparse piano performed by Sakamoto is a retrospective, taking the listener on a journey by his half-century profession.
One standout is the first-ever recorded model of the playfully lyrical “Tong Poo” from his early days with techno-pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, also called YMO. They have been pioneers of Nineteen Seventies digital music and a Japanese act that landed on the worldwide stage.
The album “Opus” is about to be launched Friday from Milan Records. It showcases solo piano variations of the movie scores that type the pillars of Sakamoto’s legacy, beginning with the majestic theme for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor,” a movie set within the last days of imperial China main into its communist rule.
It gained an Academy Award for finest authentic rating, making Sakamoto the primary Asian to win the dignity. The 1987 movie, starring John Lone, additionally gained finest image. The rating additionally gained a Grammy.
Elsewhere, the observe “BB” is Sakamoto’s homage to Bertolucci, a young love poem for his good collaborator.
“Opus” additionally options the forlornly pensive music Sakamoto did for Bertolucci’s 1990 “The Sheltering Sky,” which juxtaposed emotionally misplaced American vacationers with the ruthless vastness of northern Africa.
And it contains the music for “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” a 1983 movie a few World War II prisoner of conflict camp, directed by Nagisa Oshima, through which Sakamoto additionally acted. It has change into his signature piece.
Sakamoto’s sound has an unmistakably Asian really feel that is difficult to outline, however evident by the utilization of sure harmonies, pentatonic motifs or scales. His sound can also be evocative of Debussy however, to be truthful, that is all Sakamoto.
Minimalist is one other manner some have described his capability to talk within the silences between the notes.
All the songs on “Opus” have been immaculately recorded in Tokyo’s NHK 509 Studio, carried out with out an viewers in 2022. The piano pedal shift, and, at occasions, his respiration, are current.
A poignant black-and-white documentary movie by his son Neo Sora paperwork the recordings, unfold out over a interval of days due to Sakamoto’s weakening well being.
This testomony to Sakamoto’s music underlines an artist’s dedication to his work that was there, to the very finish. The tagline on the album reads: “Art is long, life is short.”
“Opus” is all about demise, with segments, just like the title piece that ends the album, resonating like a solemn prayer.
Sakamoto wished to document his efficiency whereas he nonetheless might. He felt so drained after the recordings, and his situation worsened. He died on March 28, 2023, in Tokyo. He was 71.
“In some sense, while thinking of this as my last opportunity to perform, I also felt that I was able to break new ground,” he mentioned in an announcement accompanying the mission.
Here is a person unafraid to face his catalog of works and provides it his personal private interpretation, understanding it will be his final.
In so doing, with a quiet dignity, he reminds us to not worry demise.
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