PIANIST RYUICHI SAKAMOTO SAID, 'I WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW, THAT I’VE NEVER DONE OR NEVER KNOWN.' By Bharat Madhok

I have never met Ryuichi Sakamoto and will never meet him as I came to know him after his passing. A pianist and a composer, his music touched my inner cords. I’m fascinated with him; he made soulful music. “Art is long, life is short,” he famously said. A work of art, be it music or painting, or any creative endeavour, has a destiny of its own, it lives and enthrals people long after its creator is dead.

I feel like I had a deep, long conversation with Sakamoto San’s (san is ‘sir’ in Japanese) beyond the grave via his music. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is an instrumental single by him, is also the famous soundtrack for the movie by the same name. This track was able to convey the movie’s emotive theme—conquering despair, conflict of the heart, as it brings a deep sense of nostalgia—without any lyrics. It tugs at my heartstrings, so fundamental and organic, almost feels it was discovered rather than composed.

The track, little less than five minutes in duration, has a timeless appeal. To me it was a transformative and transcendental experience, and, without doubt, the listener (listening is also an art form) at the beginning of the song is never the same by the time it ends. Invariably, the distracted me listens with rapt attention to his music.

When I think of my experience of listening electronic music, it’s devoid of any emotional depth, let alone such vivid expression. So, when I experienced the genius of Sakamoto, I was in for a pleasant and rude shock at the same time. He truly is visionary and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence after over forty-years remains his magnum opus to me.

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Over the years, the flamboyance of the 1980s—bright colours and glossy textures , red satin shirt and pants, backcombing for a more traditional hairdo—is a thing of the past. In his later years, Ryuichi carried a more sedate look, with grey hair, punctuated by bold round glasses, attired in simple black blazers and formal trousers.

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Sakamoto was born in Tokyo in 1952, and started playing the piano at the tender age of 3 and wrote his first composition a year later; formally, he started taking piano lessons at the age of six. His love for playing piano, though was briefly disrupted when he had become passionate about playing basketball. He went on to attend Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied electronic and ethnic music.

Yellow Magic Orchestra–a band Sakamoto helped form in the early 1980s, which pioneered ‘synth pop’ music that entails use of synthesizers and other electronic instruments, experienced by many as akin to psychedelics. Yellow Magic Orchestra has influenced generations of music lovers and its influence is clearly seen in the popular mainstream artists like Daft Punk, and, in the process, has created an incredible legacy

Sakamoto, also an accomplished film scorer, his music has had a profound impact on me, I never had been a big fan of electronic music and would hardly ever listen to western classical music. It was Sakamoto’s captivating music that opened for me the door of this rabbit hole of the genre called electronic classical. He did the unthinkable, combining these rather distinct genres, classical and electronic into an enthralling experience of sound—makes him one of his kind musician.

Sakamoto’s being oozes creativity, and is reflected in every aspect of his life, his looks–the distinctive grey hair, parted from the middle, gives an impression growing out from the center of his head and spread like two U-wings on either side. His choice of tortoiseshell round glasses seems appropriate and together are integral to his carefully crafted signature look.

He has changed his look in the past, is testimony to his evolution as a musician/composer. I admire his style in all its facet, and I’m not the odd one out, hundreds of admirers draw inspiration from him. His fans have created page on Pinterest called ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto Fashion’ to document his evolving style in consonance with his music.

Over the years, the flamboyance of the 1980s—bright colours and glossy textures (as seen in early Yellow Magic Orchestra days), red satin shirt and pants, backcombing for a more traditional hairdo—is a thing of the past. In his later years, he carried a more sedate look, with grey hair, punctuated by bold round glasses, attired in simple black blazers and formal trousers.

Sakamoto creative process is experimental in nature. in his own words, “generally, I dislike the process of making music based on a blueprint or purpose or aim. If I was an architect, I would be a bad one, because I don’t like having blueprints. Of course, without blueprints, nobody knows what the building will be. But that’s exactly what I like to do. I shouldn’t know what I’m making, or what it will be. I want to make something I don’t know, and that I’ve never done or never known. Hopefully, for me, it’s going to be a surprise, and a new experience.” That’s why I call him an organic musician who draws inspiration from the cosmos.

Sakamoto proved his point in his album Async, which was his first album after being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. I consider this album as his most experimental work, and to me it is about mortality, transience, impermanence.

Sakamoto used a piano that was retrieved after it submerged in tsunami waters; he described it as ‘the corpse of a piano’ and used it for the Zure track in the album. The piano played as if was tuned in by nature. I love his openness to experimentation with these unforeseen textures of sound, which is also the hallmark of his music, particularly in the later years.

He is an influential figure in the world of music, dozens of memorials, retrospectives, essays and profiles written on him, about him, like this one, that celebrates Sakamoto overarching contribution.

12 is his final album, by far his most personal. It builds on Async, doubling down on the emotional aspect. If Async was about coming to terms with mortality, 12 is about embracing it. He uses sound of his breathing, with only the piano and a synthesizer, to make the music in many tracks of the album. It has a soft and sombre tonality to it, is minimal and deep.

Sakamoto’s passion for music was his lifeforce, and he made music till the very end.  Sayōnara Sakamoto. Your music is immortal.