Ryuichi Sakamoto, BTTB Review

Ryuichi Sakamoto, BTTB Review

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese born composer, musician, singer, record producer, activist, writer, and actor. In the 70’s Sakamoto began his career as a session musician, producer, and arranger. He is the co-founder of the electronic-music trio Yellow Magic Orchestra. With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto helped pioneer the genres of synth-pop, techno, and house music. Sakamoto also concentrated on his own music during that time period, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album, Thousand Knives and B-2 Unit. A track from the later, “Riot in Lagos,” has been said to have influenced the development of electro and hip-hop music. Sakamoto expansive career has many records and he has collaborated with many international artists such as: David Sylvian, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N’Dour, and Fennesz among them. Sakamoto has pursued a wide variety of projects in different genres, ranging from electronic to classical, to world music. He composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sakamoto has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards. The films Merry Christmas and Mr. Lawrence marked his debut as both an actor and a film-score composer.  Other successful works as a film composer include: The Last Emperor (1987), The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). On occasion, Sakamoto has also worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games.

Originally released in 1998, BTTB (an acronym for “Back To The Basics”) was a major breakthrough for Sakamoto. The album is comprised entirely of original solo piano pieces, both delicate and frantic, with deep impressionist-inspired roots. Since the nineties, BTTB has become a rare and hard-to-find album outside of Japan, but now it is being reissued in celebration of its 20th anniversary. BTTB – 20th Anniversary Edition includes all the tracks featured in the original release of the album remastered for the 21st century, including the major hit “Energy Flow.” Accompanying the leading single, “Energy Flow,” is a brand-new video created for the release of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

 Positives: Sakamoto’s compositions define the essence that there is depth in simplicity. Each composition develops a central theme in a manner that is musical, but more importantly, it does so with only the essentials, a broader sense of minimalism combined with impressionism.

 Bottom Line: Sakamoto’s BTTB is certainly a Contemporary Classical master piece. The music is modern, minimalistic, but still has many ties and grounding in the great European cannon of traditional classical music. The manner in which Sakamoto develops his melodies, the building of his harmonic progression and the sense of form and balance all can be tracked back to their classical origins. However, the depth and power of Sakamoto’s melodies and performance is uniquely his. Sakamoto’s performance of this wonderful material is just as important as the compositions. “Intermezzo” has a wonderful descending melody in the opening section that is brought out by Sakamoto and his pacing of the performance is brilliant. The steady pace of the waltz “Opus,” the opening track, is performed with clarity and push and pull. The form is easy to follow, and the developments of the lyrical melody are brilliant, both melodically and harmonically. “Energy Flow” compositional sounds might bring to mind themes and colors of impressionist music like Debussy and Ravel or even the modernist Satie, but Sakamoto’s harmonic and rhythmic structure are his own. The power of Sakamoto’s music is the melodically rich way he approaches every aspect of the composition. Milan Records is releasing BTTB – 20th Anniversary Edition on March 1st, 2019 via digital, compact disc, and deluxe double vinyl LP. Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a master piece, that’s the short of it!

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