Ryuichi Sakamoto’s legions of fans will have a special new 2-CD package to savor on September 28th, titled “Playing The Piano” on Decca Records. The two albums, playing the piano and out of noise, present a wide-ranging view into the world of this composer, musician, producer, actor, and environmental activist. Sakamoto will make a rare North American solo tour beginning in October.
Sakamoto will perform with two Yamaha concert grand pianos. One is pre-programmed, so in actuality, he is performing a duet with himself. His graceful playing is visually enhanced by British Lighting Designer, Nigel Edwards, and Sakamoto’s longtime creative partner and Visual Director, Norika Sora, who will create minimalist images throughout the concert adding depth and dimension to Sakamoto’s performance....
read more
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s legions of fans will have a special new 2-CD package to savor on September 28th, titled “Playing The Piano” on Decca Records. The two albums, playing the piano and out of noise, present a wide-ranging view into the world of this composer, musician, producer, actor, and environmental activist. Sakamoto will make a rare North American solo tour beginning in October.
Sakamoto will perform with two Yamaha concert grand pianos. One is pre-programmed, so in actuality, he is performing a duet with himself. His graceful playing is visually enhanced by British Lighting Designer, Nigel Edwards, and Sakamoto’s longtime creative partner and Visual Director, Norika Sora, who will create minimalist images throughout the concert adding depth and dimension to Sakamoto’s performance.
Sakamoto has devoted much of his time in recent years to environmental concerns – to “turning Ego into Eco” as he puts it. He has made a huge attempt to use alternative energy for touring…constantly pushing towards sustainability, using green electricity at each performance, and all carbon dioxide emitted through the tours is offset.
The inspiration of nature in his music, as well as his efforts to tour in an eco-conscious manner, was honored with the Echo Award for The Most Innovative Musician and Musical Tour 2009 at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Echo Festival in conjunction with World Environment Day in Brussels.
The new 2-cd package:
The first CD, playing the piano, is a series of miniatures or “self-covers,” as Sakamoto refers to them – solo piano versions of his earlier works, including some of the famous film themes such as The Last Emperor (Oscar/Grammy ® –winning soundtrack), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and The Sheltering Sky (Golden Globe – best original score).
The second CD, out of noise, is arguably Sakamoto’s most ambitious to date in which he continues to explore the netherworld between music and noise that has fascinated him for years.
“As soon as you make a piano sound, it begins to vanish,” Sakamoto explains, “vanishing into noise. You can’t tell when it becomes noise, when it’s gone. That’s the area I’m interested in.” Sakamoto has studied these dichotomies for years and with the songs from out of noise, his explorations extend even further – to the sounds of the environment. “We are surrounded by the sound of the environment,” he explains. “That’s music too, really.”
Sakamoto continues to find new innovative ways of being more green through his music activity and creativity.
show less
