Sakamoto, Ryuichi
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Keyboardist, composer
Menaced David Bowie on Film
Though Ryuichi Sakamoto has cited nineteenth-cen tury French composer Claude Debussy and 1970s-era German synthesizer act Kraftwerk as his biggest influences, his style is far beyond a mere hybrid of classical impressionism and technopop. Sakamoto is known for coupling a melodic touch with technological mastery, but the depth evident in his work derives from a deep interest in multicultural forces. His compositions have combined elements from the musical traditions of Asia and other cultures with the European formalism and American hip-hop. This cultural integration was an influential precursor to the world music of the Nineties, just as Sakamoto’s electronic lyricism broke ground for contemporary ambient and new-age movements.
Sakamoto was born in Japan in 1952. He began piano training at the age of three, and by his tenth year had begun composing. By the time he was eleven, his musical interests ranged from the Beatles to Beethoven and he began to study under a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He enrolled formally as a student there in 1971, and came into contact with synthesizers for the first time. The university owned several, which were then fairly expensive and rare. Sakamoto eventually earned a B.A. in composition and later a master’s degree with a concentration in electronic and ethnic music; his university years also introduced him to radical politics, and he was associated with a leftist student group, Zen Ga Kren. In 1977, he began work as a composer, arranger, and studio musician with some of Japan’s most popular rock, jazz, and classical artists. Within a few years, he became a noted producer, arranger, and keyboardist.
Formed Yellow Magic Orchestra
In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album, The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto. That same year, he and two fellow young, avant-garde Tokyo rockers, Haruomi Hosano and Yukihiro Takahashi, formed Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With a sound that drew heavily from progressive European music of the 1970s—especially the German band Kraftwerk—but also presented a distinctly Japanese sonic touch, Sakamoto and the others became celebrities. “They were the Great Yellow Hope, the group that would crack the Anglo curtain and do for Japanese musicians what the Beatles did for the British,” wrote Bob Doerschuk in Keyboard magazine.
YMO became wildly popular in Japan, but also found an audience abroad. “Computer Game,” a track from their debut, became a staple in both discotheques and new wave clubs in America and Europe. Their second album, Solid State Survivor, released in 1979, sold well over a million copies, which led to the first of many world tours. In his travels, Sakamoto became acquainted firsthand with the cultures of much of the international music that had long fascinated him. Between 1978 and 1984, YMO released 13 albums, plus another 13 albums of other material and remixes over the next dozen years. Though they disbanded in 1983, with members wishing to move on to other projects, YMO remained popular even in the late 1990s, with several Internet Web sites devoted to the group. Sakamoto’s contributions to the group’s prolific output demonstrated his interest in such diverse sources as jazz, classical, Jamaican dub, Latin bossa nova, and Indonesian gamelan as well as his interest in pioneering electronic equipment.
Menaced David Bowie on Film
Sakamoto segued from pop stardom to a career in film. He scored the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and starred opposite David Bowie in the World War ll-set drama. He became involved in other media as well. In 1984, he formed his own publishing company, Hon Hon Doh, and published Long Calls, a dialogue with Yuji Takahashi. Subsequent issuances have included dialogues with composers and philosophers. In 1987, Sakamoto’s score for the Bernardo Bertolucci epic The Last Emperor, written with Talking Heads founder David Byrne and Cong Su, won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and the New York, Los Angeles, and British Film Critics Association awardsfor best original score. Sakamoto also acted in a minor but pivotal role in the film. “The
For the Record…
Born in Japan in 1952; once married to keyboardist AkikoYano. Education: Received degree in music composition, and advanced degree in electronic and ethnic music, both mid-1970s, from Tokyo’s National University of Fine Arts and Music.
Began composing music at the age of eleven; formed Yellow Magic Orchestra with two other Japanese musicians, 1977; released several albums with group, 1978-83; group disbanded, 1983 (reformed briefly, 1993); began solo career with The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto on Nippon Columbia, 1978; released several other solo albums from throughout career; began composing film scores with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, 1983; has collaborated with numerous musicians and producers from around the globe.
Sakamoto’s soundtrack for the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci film The Last Emperor, composed with Cong Su and David Byrne, earned a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe, and several other awards for best film score.
Addresses: Home —New York City. Record company —Island Records, 400 Lafayette St., fifth floor, New York, NY 10003.
director asked me to act first then I asked to compose the music so it was a good trade,” he said on an America Online chat.
Since then he has worked with Volker Schlondorff (The Handmaid’s Tale), Oliver Stone (the television series Wild Palms), Pedro Almodovar (High Heels), Bertolucci again (The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha), and others. Of his working relationship with Bertolucci, he said in the America Online interview: “We’re friends, but when we work, we, of course, fight. I’m always the loser, because it’s his film. That’s what he says, ‘It’s my film.’” Sakamoto’s film roles have led to an appearance in Madonna’s “Rain” music video, and he has even worked as a menswear model for top designers. In Japan, his famous face appears frequently on billboards pitching a variety of products. Since 1990 he has lived in New York City’s Greenwich Village, but he described living there as “a disaster,” to Mark Prendergast in New Statesman & Society. “It’s quite violent…. When I’mdriving in Manhattan and you stop at the lights people come at you from all sides banging on your windows for money.”
Composed 1992 Olympic Theme
The list of contributors Sakamoto has worked with musically is a long one: the aforementioned Byrne and Bowie, as well as Public Image Limited (PiL), Iggy Pop, Jamaican reggae artist Sly Dunbar, Thomas Dolby, Beach Boy Brian Wilson, David Sylvain, and Caetano Veloso as well as the writers William Burroughs, celebrated video-installation artist Nam June Paik, and cyberpunk trailblazer William Gibson. One of Sakamoto’s more noted accomplishments was the invitation to compose a musical work in honor of the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in Barcelona, Spain. He conducted the piece, “El Mar Mediterano,” for the opening ceremony.
In addition to his work with YMO—they reunited for one album in 1993—the film scores, and the extensive collaborative efforts, Sakamoto has enjoyed an impressive solo career. Between 1978 and 1996, he released several solo albums, including as 1984’s Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, Neo Geo, released in 1987, and 1990’s acclaimed Beauty On this latter effort, Sakamoto’s vision brought together the diverse talents of the Beach Boy, the rasta Dunbar, and Senegalese vocalist Youssou N’Dour all on one track, “Calling from Tokyo.” The Band’s Robbie Robertson and Ravi Shankar also guested in the studio, and Sakamoto even undertook a rare concert tour for the work. Doerschuk called it “an album that fully lives up to its name,” he wrote in a 1990 issueof Keyboard. “It’s a complex beauty, attimeseven unsettling.”
For Sakamoto’s 1992 solo album, Heartbeat, the composer branched out from the Middle Eastern and African rhythms that had peppered Beauty and found inspiration in house music. He invited Dee-Lite’s DJ Dmitri to appear on it, as well as Lounge Lizard John Lurie, who played alto sax. Smoochy released in 1995, was influenced by Sakamoto’s trip to Rio de Janeiro and that city’s diverse culture. The following year he made a return to more classical form with 1996, in which Sakamoto abandoned the tablas and synthesizers in favor of an actual piano and string instruments. He writes and records music via a Macintosh computer, however, and his years of experience and resulting proficiency in electronic music and cutting-edge technology allow him to arrange and conduct his compositions not in a studio, with other musicians present, but on computer disk.
A Futurist at Heart
In Sakamoto’s 1985 interviewwith Keyboard, he predicted the demise of record and CD sales. “Soon music will primarily be sold as data over telephone lines and cable,” he told Doerschuk. “To prepare for this, I’ve started gearing toward audio-visual projects, like videos and cable television.” Several years later, Sakamoto was lauding the technology had brought new immediacy to connecting with others across the globe. He noted in a 1996 interview with Billboards Steve McClure that “some record companies are very nervous” about the Internet. “It’s a new medium through which you can transmit any information, without a third party, directly to the world…. You don’t need [label executives], you don’t need a CD factory, you don’t need trucks to bring the CDS to the stores.”
Sakamoto’s musical interests, always geographically expansive, have broadened in a conceptual sense as well. Three of his live performances—a June 1996 show at the Knitting Factory in New York, a July concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and another at Orchard Hall in Tokyo the following month—were broadcast on the Internet. He also has a radio program in Japan, and his guest lecture at Keio University is available on the Internet as well. Sakamoto continues to explore new musical concepts and technologies—in 1996 he was releasing work on laser disc as well—and anticipates the music of the next century. He theorized that the earth’s inhabitants “will have to move to a big space station in the next hundred years. We will have to bring Earth culture with us—not space station culture, but culture of this world,” he mused in the 1990 interview with Doerschuk. His online diary for September, 1996 reflected his vision for even more dramatic possibilities: “I ask myself what the sound of music originating from something as immense as the Internet would sound like. The music would be without a center. Perhaps a key in understanding of what this kind of music would sound like lies in the music of the Pygmy tribes in Africa or in sounds made by whales.”
Selected discography
Solo LPs
The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nippon Columbia, 1978.
B-2 Unit, Alfa, 1980.
Left Handed Dream, Alfa, 1981.
Coda, London, 1983.
Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, Midi, 1984.
Esperanto, Midi, 1985.
Media Bahn Live, Midi, 1986.
Future Boy, Midi, 1986.
Neo Geo, CBS Sony/Epic, 1987.
Beauty, Virgin, 1988.
Playing the Orchestra, Virgin, 1988.
Gruppo Musicale, Midi, 1989.
Ryuichi Sakamoto in the 90’s, Mark Piati remix, Alfa, 1991.
Heartbeat, Virgin, 1992.
Ryuichi Sakamoto Virgin Tracks, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Ryuichi Sakamoto Soundtracks, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Gruppo Musicale II, Midi, 1993.
Sweet Revenge Tour 1994, For Life/Gut, 1994.
Hard Revenge, For Life/Gut, 1994.
Sweet Revenge, For Life/Gut-Elektra, 1994.
Smoochy, For Life/Gut, 1995.
1996, For Life/Gut, 1996.
Snooty, For Life/Gut, 1996.
Albums with Yellow Magic Orchestra; on Alfa unless otherwise noted
Yellow Magic Orchestra, 1978.
Solid State Survivor, 1979.
Yellow Magic Orchestra-U.S. Remix, 1979.
Multiples (album version), 1980.
Multiples (with Snakeman Show; 10-inch vinyl), 1980.
Public Pressur. (live), 1980.
Technodelic, 1981.
BGM, 1981.
Service, 1983.
Naughty Boys (instrumental), 1983.
Naughty Boys, 1983.
After Service (live), 1984.
Sealed limited edition compilation, 1984.
YMO Mega Mix, 1990.
Faker Holic, YMO World Tour Live, 1991.
YMO in the 90’s —Peter Lorimar remix, 1991.
Techno Bible, YMO, 1992.
Live at Budhokkan 1980, 1993.
Technodon Live, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon Remixes remix by the Orb, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon Remixes remix by Tei Towa and Go Hotoda, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
YMO vs. The Human League, 1993.
YMO/Over Seas Collection, 1995.
YMO—Winter—Live—1981, 1995.
YMO World Tour 1980, 1996.
Other
Summer Nerves, with The Kakutogi Session, CBS Sony, 1979.
The Arrangement, with Robin Scott, Alfa, 1982.
The End of Asia, with Danceries, Nippon Columbia, 1982.
(Producer/arranger) Virginia Astley, Hope in a Darkened Heart, WEA, 1986
Let It Be, with Aki Takahashi, Toshiba EMI, 1992.
(Producer/arranger) Aztec Camera, Dreamland, Sire/WEA, 1993.
Asian Games, with Yosuke Yamashita and Bill Laswell, Mercury, 1993.
A Chance Operation —A Tribute to John Cage, Koch Classics, 1993.
The Geisha Girls, The Geisha Girls—Remix, For Life/Gut, 1994.
(Producer) The Geisha Girls, The Geisha Girls Show, For Life/Gut, 1995.
The Geisha Girls, The Geisha “Remix” Girls Show, For Life/Gut, For Life/Gut, 1995.
E Preciso Perdoar —Red Hot + Rio, with Caetano Veloso and Cesaria Evora, Antilles/Verve, 1996.
(Producer) Syokumotsu-rensa, Miki Nakatani, For Life/Gut, 1996.
Film soundtracks
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, London/Milan, 1983.
Kitten Story (Koneko Monogatari), Midi, 1986.
Aile De Honneamise, Midi, 1987.
The Last Emperor, Virgin, 1988.
The Sheltering Sky, Virgin, 1990.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Japan Record, 1990.
Wild Palms, Capitol, 1992.
Wuthering Heights, Capitol, 1992.
Peach Boy (Momotaro), Rabbit Ear Productions, 1992.
High Heels, Island/Virgin, 1992.
Little Buddha, Milan, 1993.
Sources
Books
(Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ryu Murakami) A Writer’s Sonata: A Musician’s Story, Shinchosha, 1996.
Periodicals
Billboard, April 14, 1990, p. 32; June29, 1996; August 31, 1996.
Keyboard, August 1985, p. 32; July 1990, p. 49.
Musician, October 1994, p. 48.
New Statesman, June 24, 1992, p. 32; July 19, 1996, p. 17.
Online
http://www.kab.com./m/siteskmt
Other sources used in compilation of this profile included Tokyo Melody, a documentary by produced by a French television network, 1985; a transcript from America Online chat with Ryuichi Sakamoto, June 13, 1996; an on-line diary, September, 1996; publicity material from RZO Advisory Group, 1996.
—Link Yaco
Sakamoto, Ryuichi
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Composer, keyboardist
Formed Group; Began Recording and Touring
Ryuichi Sakamoto cites Debussy and Kraftwerk as his biggest influences but his style is far more than a peculiar hybrid of classical impressionism and technopop. He is known for his combination of melodic touch and technological mastery, but the depth of his work is derived from his comprehensive interest in multi cultural sources. His work combines musical influences from Asia, Indonesia, the West Indies, Latin America, and other cultures with the classicism of Europe and American pop. Some see this cultural integration as an influential precursor to the world music of the 1990s, arguing that his electronic lyricism broke ground for contemporary ambient and new age movements.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was born in Japan in 1952. By age 11, his musical interests ranged from the Beatles to Beethoven and he began to study under Professor Matsumoto at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1971, he entered the university, where he earned a bachelor of arts in composition and a master’s degree with a concentration in electronic and ethnic music. In 1977, he began work as a composer, arranger, and studio musician with some of Japan’s most popular rock, jazz, and classical artists. Within a few years, he became a noted producer, arranger, and keyboardist. “Piano is my main instrument. It is like the extension of my body and brain.” he said during an America Online chat, qualifying his classical leanings with the comment: “I’m basically a gadget victim, I always like new things!” Inthe 1970s and 1980s, Sakamoto became known as an innovator in electronic keyboard work and worked with such equipment as Fairlight 2, Prophet 5, and Arp Odyssey.
Formed Group; Began Recording and Touring
In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album, Thousand Knives, and, along with Haruomi Hosano and Yukihiro Takahashi, formed Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). In 1979, YMO’s second album sold well over a million copies, leading to the first of many world tours. While touring, Sakamoto witnessed firsthand the origin of those influences that had fascinated him as a youth.
YMO released 13 albums between 1978 and 1984, also releasing another 13 albums of other material and remixes over the over next 12 years. YMO remains popular to this day, with several Internet Web sites devoted to the group. YMO’s music shows Sakamoto’s influence by such diverse sources as jazz, classical, Jamaican dub, Latin Bossa Nova, and Indonesian gamelan, as well as his interest in pioneering electronic equipment. YMO continues to have a devoted following and its influence on technopop and ambient new age music is still widely recognized.
For the Record…
Born c. 1952 in Japan. Education: Studied under Professor Matsumoto at Tokyo University of the Arts as a youth; Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, B.A. in music composition, 1974; M.F.A. in electronic and ethnic music, 1977.
Released first solo album and, along with Haruomi Hosano and Yukihiro Takahashi, formed Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), 1978; left YMO to pursue a solo career, writing film scores, producing and arranging albums, developing his own albums, and working with other artists such as Brian Wilson, Iggy Pop, Robbie Robertson, David Byrne, David Sylvain, and Caetano Veloso as well as the writers William Burroughs and cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, 1983; toured the world several times and performed at a variety of multimedia events including live broadcasts on the Internet; formed his own publishing company Hon Hon Doh, 1984.
Awards: Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards, and New York, Los Angeles, and British Film Critics Association awards for best original score for Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, 1983; Academy, Golden Globe, Los Angeles, New York Film Critics Association, and British Academy Awards for best original score for The Last Emperor, 1988; Golden Globe and Los Angeles Film Critics Association award, for best original music score for The Sheltering Sky, 1991.
Addresses: Record company —Alfa, c/o FTC, P.O. Box 27245, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Publicity— KAB America, Inc., 48 Eighth Ave.,#413, New York, NY 10014.
In 1983, Sakamoto left YMO to begin writing film scores. He created his first soundtrack for the film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, in which he also had an acting role. This experience led to a number of other film scores. In 1984, Sakamoto formed his own publishing company Hon Hon Doh and published Long Calls, a dialogue with Yuji Takahashi.
In 1987, Sakamoto’s score for Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, written in collaboration with Cong Su and Talking Heads founder David Byrne, won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and The New York, Los Angeles, and British Film Critics Association awards for Best Original Score. He also had an acting role in the film. “The director asked me to act first, then I asked to compose the music so it was a good trade,” he said in an America Online chat. Since that time Sakamoto has worked twice with Bertolucci, as well as Oliver Stone ( Wild Palms), Almodovar (High Heels) and other films. Of his working relationship with Bertolucci, he told America Online, “We’re friends, but when we work, we, of course, fight. I’m always the loser, because it’s his film. That’s what he says, ‘It’s my film.’”
Sakamoto’s film roles also led to an appearance in Madonna’s “Rain” music video, and as a celebrity model for Barney’s New York fashion designer Antonio Miro and the Gap. He has even appeared as a mens-wear model in some of the world’s most prestigious magazines. Sakamoto’s film scores have led to work with such iconic musicians as David Bowie (who also acted in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), Iggy Pop, and Jamaican reggae artist Sly Dunbar on his 1987 album Neo Geo.
Other collaborators include Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the Band’s Robbie Robertson, Talking Head’s David Byrne, David Sylvain, and Caetano Veloso, as well as writer William Burroughs and cyberpunk trailblazer William Gibson. Between 1979 and 1996, Sakamoto played on, arranged, or produced 13 albums and 15 singles in collaboration with other artists. He also composed and conducted El Mar Mediterano for the Opening Ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and composed music for the opening ceremony of The World Athletic Championships in Tokyo, in 1991.
New Times, New Media
In addition to his work with YMO, film soundtracks, and collaborative efforts, Sakamoto has engaged in a weighty solo career. Between 1978 and 1996, he released 23 solo albums. His musical interests, always geographically expansive, have broadened in a conceptual sense as well. His solo musical career is not limited to CDs and live performance. Three of his live performances—July 26, 1996 at London’s Royal Festival Hall—June 16, 1996 at the Knitting Factory in New York—and August 28, 1996, at Orchard Hall in Tokyo—were broadcast on the Internet. He also has a radio program in Japan, and his guest lecture at Keio University is available on the Internet as well.
Sakamoto continues to explore new musical concepts and anticipates the music of the next century. In his online diary for September, 1996, he wrote, “I ask myself what the sound of music originating from something as immense as the Internet would sound like. The music would be without a center. Perhaps a key in understanding of what this kind of music would sound like lies in the music of the Pygmy tribes in Africa or in sounds made by whales.” With close to a hundred singles and albums to his credit since 1973, Sakamoto is one of the more prolific artists around. His diversity in style and medium is impressive as well. He has done work in film, viaeo, vinyl, CD, on the radio and Internet. His style encompasses the technopop he pioneered as well as the multi-cultural idioms he has always embraced—Latin, Asian, European Classical, American pop, and a wide variety of constantly evolving interests. Sakamoto’s range, productivity, and ability to constantly grow and explore continue to make him a prominent feature on the musical landscape of the 1990s.
Selected discography
Solo albums
Thousand Knives, Nippon Columbia, 1978.
B-2 Unit, Alfa, 1980.
Left Handed Dream, Alfa, 1981.
Coda, London, 1983.
Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, Midi 1984.
Esperanto, Midi, 1985.
Future Boy, Midi, 1986.
Media Bahn Live, Midi, 1986.
Neo Geo, CBS Sony/Epic, 1987.
Playing the Orchestra, Virgin, 1988.
Beauty, Virgin, 1988.
Gruppo Musicale, Midi, 1989.
Ryuichi Sakamoto in the 90’s, Mark Plati remix, Alfa, 1991.
Heartbeat, Virgin, 1992.
Gruppo Musicale II, Midi, 1993.
Ryuichi Sakamoto Soundtracks, Toshiba EMI 1993.
Ryuichi Sakamoto Virgin Tracks, Toshiba EMI 1993.
Sweet Revenge, For Life/Gut-Elektra, 1994.
Hard Revenge, For Life/Gut, 1994.
Sweet Revenge Tour 1994, For Life/Gut, 1994.
Smoochy-Japanese Version, For Life/Gut, 1995.
Snooty, For Life/Gut, 1996.
1996, For Life/Gut, 1996.
Smoochy, Milan/BMG, 1997.
Stalker: Nigekirenu Ai, For Life/Gut, 1997.
With Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Alfa, 1978.
Yellow Magic Orchestra U.S. Remix, Alfa, 1979.
Solid State Survivor, Alfa, 1979.
Public Pressure from Live Performance, Alfa, 1980.
Multiples—with Snakeman Show—10 inch vinyl, Alfa, 1980.
Multiples—Album Version, Alfa, 1980.
BGM, Alfa, 1981.
Technodelic, Alfa, 1981.
Naughty Boys, Alfa, 1983.
Naughty Boys—Instrumental, Alfa, 1983.
Service, Alfa, 1983.
Sealed limited edition compilation, Alfa, 1984.
After Service from Live Performance, Alfa, 1984.
YMO Mega Mix, Alfa, 1990.
YMO in the 90’s—Peter Lorimar remix, Alfa, 1991.
Faker Holic, YMO World Tour Live, Alfa, 1991.
Techno Bible YMO, Alfa, 1992.
YMO vs. The Human League, Alfa, 1993.
Technodon, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon Remixes remix by Tel Towa and Go Hotoda, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon Remixes remix by the Orb, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Technodon Live, Toshiba EMI, 1993.
Live at Budhokkan 1980, Alfa, 1993.
YMO—Winter—Live—1981, Alfa, 1995.
YMO/Over Seas Collection, Alfa, 1995.
YMO World Tour 1980, Alfa, 1996.
Collaboration albums
Summer Nerves, with The Kakutogi Session, CBS Sony, 1979.
The End of Asia, with Danceries, Nippon Columbia, 1982.
The Arrangement, with Robin Scott, Alfa, 1982.
Hope in a Darkened Heart, (Producer/Arranger) Virginia Astley, WEA, 1986.
Let It Be, with Aki Takahashi, Toshiba EMI, 1992.
A Chance Operation—A Tribute to John Cage, Koch Classics, 1993.
Asian Games, with Yosuke Yamashita and Bill Laswel, Mercury, 1993.
Dreamland, (Producer/Arranger) Aztec Camera, Sire/WEA, 1993.
The Geisha Girls—Remix, with The Geisha Girls, For Life/Gut, 1994.
The Geisha Girls Show, (Producer) The Geisha Girls, For Life/Gut, 1995.
The Geisha “Remix” Girls Show, with The Geisha Girls, For Life/Gut, For Life/Gut, 1995.
Syokumotsu-rensa, (Producer) Miki Nakatani, For Life/Gut, 1996.
E Preciso Perdoar—Red Hot + Rio, with Caetano Veloso and Cesaria Evora, AntillesA/erve, 1996.
Soundtrack albums
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, London/Milan, 1983.
Kitten Story (Koneko Monogatari), Midi, 1986.
Aile De Honneamise, Midi, 1987.
The Last Emperor, Virgin, 1988.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Japan Record, 1990.
The Sheltering Sky, Virgin, 1990.
High Heels, IslandA/irgin, 1992.
Peach Boy (Momotaro), Rabbit Ear Productions, 1992.
Wuthering Heights, Capitol, 1992.
Wild Palms, Capitol, 1992.
Little Buddha, Milan, 1993.
Sources
Books
Murakami Ryu and Ryuichi Sakamoto, A Writer’s Sonata; A Musician’s Story, Shinchosha, 1996.
Periodicals
Billboard, June 29, 1996.
Online
Web site: http://www.kab.com./m/siteskmt, November 21, 1996.
American Online, transcript from chat with Ryuichi Sakamoto, June 13, 1996.
Other
Tokyo Melody, documentary by French National TV, 1985.
Additional information for this profile was obtained from RZO advisory press material, 1996.
—Link Yaco