R A D I O J I R O # 53 Ryuichi Sakamoto Having done posts on Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi it was only left for me to do a post on the final member of YMO, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto is probably the most well-known of the trio having worked with a number of western artists including Japan, Iggy Pop, Arto Lindsay, David Byrne and PiL and probably most famously staring alongside David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Before joing YMO Sakamoto had sessioned on a few records with the other 2 members of YMO as well as releasing his first solo record Thousand Knives Of which included the brilliant track of the same name which I mentioned on my previous ‘YMO Family’. For my first track however I’ve gone for a piece from his second solo LP Summer Nerves which he recorded with the Kakutougi Session and the track Neuronian Network, a classy jazzy chilled out number with Sakamoto on the piano doing his thing. Next up the title track from the movie I mentioned earlier; Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, not the greatest film and definitely not a particularly good performance from Sakamoto - however the music he created for the movie is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time, this version being a live take with the Sakamoto trio, beautiful stuff. A year later Sakamoto released the record Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia which included a number of great Sakamoto tracks including ‘Steppin’ Into Asia’ and ‘Zen-Gun’ but for this next choice I’ve gone for the upbeat number ‘Tibetan Dance’, check out this great live footage of the track. Finally from Sakamoto I’ve gone for a bit of an unfamiliar track ‘Aopen-ki No Naka No Boku No Namida’ only officially released as a single for a Japanese life insurance company which also release accompanying adverts, this advert here staring Sakamoto with another track from the single.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto

Having done posts on Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi it was only left for me to do a post on the final member of YMO, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto is probably the most well-known of the trio having worked with a number of western artists including Japan, Iggy Pop, Arto Lindsay, David Byrne and PiL and probably most famously staring alongside David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Before joing YMO Sakamoto had sessioned on a few records with the other 2 members of YMO as well as releasing his first solo record Thousand Knives Of which included the brilliant track of the same name which I mentioned on my previous ‘YMO Family’. For my first track however I’ve gone for a piece from his second solo LP Summer Nerves which he recorded with the Kakutougi Session and the track Neuronian Network, a classy jazzy chilled out number with Sakamoto on the piano doing his thing. Next up the title track from the movie I mentioned earlier; Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, not the greatest film and definitely not a particularly good performance from Sakamoto - however the music he created for the movie is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time, this version being a live take with the Sakamoto trio, beautiful stuff.

A year later Sakamoto released the record Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia which included a number of great Sakamoto tracks including ‘Steppin’ Into Asia’ and ‘Zen-Gun’ but for this next choice I’ve gone for the upbeat number ‘Tibetan Dance’, check out this great live footage of the track.



Finally from Sakamoto I’ve gone for a bit of an unfamiliar track ‘Aopen-ki No Naka No Boku No Namida’ only officially released as a single for a Japanese life insurance company which also release accompanying adverts, this advert here staring Sakamoto with another track from the single.

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