“I think he finally came back to embracing the piano again.”

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Great interview with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son, Neo Sora, about OPUS, his film featuring his father in his final performance. Looking forward to seeing the film (via Pitchfork):

It harkens back to his lifelong fascination with the tension he felt between Western and non-Western music. He started to learn [piano] at three years old, and by age 18, he was totally proficient in the Western classical mode of composing. But at the time, Japan in the late ’60s and ’70s was a time of radical change and revolution, [where people were] criticizing and reconceptualizing the tradition they were steeped in. Simultaneously, he was learning a lot about ethnomusicology and the music of other traditions. So he started to really question this 12-tone system of Western music, and he tried to deconstruct that throughout his life.

At the same time, when the piano has been part of your body and muscle memory for so long, how do you escape that? It just happened to be the most familiar and fluid form of musical expression that he had. He wanted to fully explore its potential, and I think he finally came back to embracing the piano again.

Ryuichi Sakamato’s virtual encore

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While it sounds like the tech leaves something to be desired, the execution and intent of the project as a whole seems a poignant farewell to one of the greats. Love the IKIRU homage.

... gentle fog that curls around everyone's ankles for the opening piece; a tree that draws itself on top of the piano a bit later. "It was never my intention to simply service people who knew they loved Ryuichi, but to try to expand the audience that would come to understand his work," says Eckert. Luckily, the artworks elevate the performance instead of detracting from it. While Sakamoto is playing the hit track "Energy Flow," for example, a window opens high above him, and snowflakes start floating through it. The snow effect references Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film IKIRU, where the main character--an elderly man who knows he will die soon--spends his final moments sitting on a park swing during a snowfall, singing a romantic ballad.

Picked up Sakamoto's final album, 12, on vinyl this week and it’s sublime.