RYUICHI SAKAMOTO レコード& CD

Review: Vrioon was the first ever collaboration album between Alva Noto and legendary synth man and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. 20 years after it became the first instalments of V.I.R.U.S.'s five records together it gets the full reissue treatment. The original tracks from the album are joined by an all new composition 'Landscape Skizze' which was laid down in 2005. The record is defined by alternate piano chords, lush electronic tones and quivering timbres that are delicate yet impactful.

Review: Since its initial release back in 2008, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's fourth collaborative album, UTP, has become one of the pair's most celebrated full-length excursions. There's a good reason for that, too. Recorded with the Ensemble Modern string section, it presents an impeccable, atmospheric and otherworldly blend of electronic ambience, high-minded abstract experimentalism, and modern classical that benefits greatly from the presence of variations on multiple tracks - a creative decision that makes it sound like a cyclical, subtly evolving trip through minimalistic, Reichian movements. Astonishingly, this is the first time the album has ever been available on vinyl, so we'd expect copies to fly out. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment.

Review: Silva Screen Records continues their vast compilation project here with another tribute to the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, the legendary former member of Yellow Magic Orchestra who passed not so long ago. They have pressed this one up to various formats and this is a gatefold transparent lime green and black splattered vinyl from the acclaimed film scorer. He wrote for epics such as Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Sheltering Sky and The Last Emperor. This album takes in plenty of the most standout tracks from those movies, all performed by the Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by Dirk Brosse.

Review: Ryuichi Sakamoto is making a very welcome return here with his first solo album since 2017's async. Milan Records are releasing 12 in January to coincide with the venerated Japanese composer's 71st birthday, and the timing is poignant given the album draws from musical sketches created while Sakamoto battled for two and a half years with cancer. Sakamoto himself describes reaching for his synths as a kind of therapeutic response to a big operation, and so the music carries an added depth of personal experience from one of the most profound ordeals a person can go through.

Review: This is a CD verison of Ryuichi Sakamoto's very welcome return to the fray. It is his first solo album since 2017's async. Milan Records have released 12 in January to coincide with the venerated Japanese composer's 71st birthday, and the timing is poignant given the album draws from musical sketches created while Sakamoto battled for two and a half years with cancer. Sakamoto himself describes reaching for his synths as a kind of therapeutic response to a big operation, and so the music carries an added depth of personal experience from one of the most profound ordeals a person can go through.

Review: Ryuichi Sakamoto was still in the early days of his career when second solo album, "Thousand Knives Of", appeared in 1978. It was recorded around the same time as the formation of the band that made him famous, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and contains a similar reliance on cutting-edge electronic instrumentation. Of course, there are still pieces that doff a cap to his classical roots - see the piano-heavy "Grasshoppers" - as well as workouts that join the dots between jazz-funk and German style "kosmiche" ("Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied"), but for the most part it's the entirely electronic tracks that hit home hardest. For proof, check the jaunty genius of "Plastic Bamboo", the prototype YMO electrofunk of "The End Of Asia" and the doom-laden weirdness of "Island Of Woods".