GRAMMY® Nominated for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album: Opus - Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto's Final Concert
GRAMMY® Nominated for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album
A Final Concert From Legendary Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto
Opus
Available via Milan Records
Listen Here
Listen To “For Jóhann”
Watch Video
A New Work Composed and Performed by Sakamoto in Honor of his Friend, The Late Composer Jóhann Jóhannson
Press downloads available upon request
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus - The Film Now Available on
The Criterion Channel
Ars longa, vita brevis.
Art is long, life is short.
“This testament to Sakamoto’s music underlines an artist's commitment to his work that was there, to the very end. ‘Opus’ is all about death, with segments, like the title piece that ends the album, resonating like a solemn prayer. Here is a man unafraid to face his catalog of works and give it his own personal interpretation, knowing it would be his last.”
– Associated Press
“Sakamoto plays like a dancer, or a conductor; his hands shape the sound on the keys, but also take flight at times, as if he’s coaxing a tone out of the instrument, or himself.”
– The New York Times
“Rather than mythologize his life in narrative songwriting or theatrical instrumental fireworks, he’s chosen a quiet grace, one more subtle and restrained than even his softest prior work.”
– Pitchfork
The late legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s highly anticipated posthumous album, Opus – a collection of works performed as a final concert in the fall of 2022 before Sakamoto’s death in early 2023 and which was just nominated for a GRAMMY® in the category of Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album – is available now via Milan Records - listen here.
Alongside the release of Opus is a video of Sakamoto performing “for Jóhann,” one of the newly composed pieces on the album. It is a tribute to Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson, one of Sakamoto’s close friends and colleagues, who passed away in 2018. watch here.
In late 2022, the Japanese composer, producer, and artist Ryuichi Sakamoto sat down at the piano for a final performance. Too ill to complete an entire set at once, Opus is garnered from multiple sessions shot and recorded in Tokyo’s legendary NHK 509 Studio. The concert was filmed and recorded without an audience, directed by Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora and turned into a film Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus, now available on The Criterion Channel.
Opus was carefully curated by Sakamoto, with selections including his iconic film scores, Yellow Magic Orchestra classics, alongside pieces reflective of his eclectic career. “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” perhaps one of his most famous melodies, and beloved works "Andata,” "Aqua" and "Trioon" are represented as well as entirely new or never-before-recorded compositions. “for Jóhann”, dedicated to the late composer and Sakamoto’s friend Jóhann Jóhannsson, “BB,” a tribute to filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, and “20180219 (w/prepared piano),” a previously unreleased solo prepared-piano track, are all new to Sakamoto’s vast repertoire.
Sakamoto provided a statement on the project after it was recorded, saying:
The project was conceived as a way to record my performances—while I was still able to perform—in a way that is worth preserving for the future. In some sense, while thinking of this as my last opportunity to perform, I also felt that I was able to break new ground. Simply playing a few songs a day with a lot of concentration was all I could muster at this point in my life. Perhaps due to the exertion, I felt utterly hollow afterwards, and my condition worsened for about a month. Even so, I feel relieved that I was able to record before my death—a performance that I was satisfied with.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a musician of incredible breadth and ambition, whose work spanned genres, forms, and ideas. Much of his music followed a similar transformation—often, Sakamoto would take his works and morph them, from their original shape as pop songs or film scores, and translate them for orchestras or for solo piano or for large museum installations. He was like an alchemist altering the states of an element, granting each piece many lives. It is perhaps the best illustration of the strength of Sakamoto’s songwriting that a composition could change many times, sturdy yet mutable, that he could deconstruct and remake his own work over and over.
These chosen works tell the story of not only a prolific musician, but a tirelessly curious artist. It is a reflection of Sakamoto’s own life and work as he faces death, on his own terms. On this album, the performer is dying, but through the performance, he lives forever.
Opus – Tracklisting
1. Lack of Love*
2. BB*
3. Andata
4. Solitude
5. for Jóhann*
6. Aubade 2020
7. Ichimei - small happiness
8. Mizu no Naka no Bagatelle
9. Bibo no Aozora
10. Aqua
11. Tong Poo*
12. The Wuthering Heights
13. 20220302 - sarabande
14. The Sheltering Sky
15. 20180219 (w/prepared piano)*
16. The Last Emperor
17. Trioon*
18. Happy End
19. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
20. Opus - ending
*New arrangement or never-before-recorded
About Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a composer, producer, and artist born in Tokyo. His diverse résumé includes pioneering electronic works in the legendary techno group Yellow Magic Orchestra, producing pop albums and numerous classical compositions, two operas, and nearly 45 original film/TV scores for directors, including Bernardo Bertolucci, Pedro Almodóvar, Brian De Palma, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. His film soundtracks have won prestigious awards, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and many more.
Sakamoto also made considerable contributions to the art world with both solo and collaborative installations and multi-piece exhibitions presented in galleries and museums worldwide.
On January 17th, 2023, his 71st birthday, Ryuichi released 12, his 15th solo album. The new album is a collection of 12 songs selected from musical sketches Sakamoto recorded like a sound diary during his two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.
Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away in March 2023 at the age of 71.
In memory of Ryuichi, his family and friends launched TREES FOR SAKAMOTO, a tree planting initiative to enable fans to donate to planting trees in various regions simply and transparently.