Ryuichi The celebrated Japanese composer reveals the oddly shaped edges of his constantly questing mind. Sakamoto Words by Charles Shafaieh, Photography by Christopher Ferguson & Styling by Debbie Hsieh Ryuichi Sakamoto is fascinated by with his music, but I’m sure it was the strange sounds made by a pi- about prayer. The shock I had after ano that survived the 2011 earth- the tsunami and the nuclear plant quake and tsunami on Japan’s accident in Japan is still here [he eastern seaboard, despite its being touches his heart]. What was that thrown about by the water. “I felt and what should I do? I still don’t as if I was playing the corpse of a have the answer, but I have been piano that had drowned,” he says trying to help children in those af- in Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, a 2017 fected areas, bringing them back documentary about his life and to music. Most importantly, I’m work. This fascination is unsur- thinking about those events, and prising, as it serves as an embodi- they affect my writing. ment of many of his passions and predilections, including his end- Why do you write music at all, less curiosity for undiscovered considering you seem so fasci- sounds, his support for environ- nated, even consumed, by sounds mental issues and his acute aware- that exist in nature? It’s wasting ness of and sensitivity toward the time to listen to music when you mortality of all living things—in- go outside because there are so cluding the planet. many interesting noises. For ex- As the first snow of the season ample, every time it rains, I open fell on lower Manhattan, Sakamo- the window and put the recorder to, the Academy Award–winning outside. I should always be ready composer of such film scores as to be surprised, like by the siren The Revenant and The Last Emper- of a patrol car in Barcelona and or as well as a founding member other cities. I hit things, on the of the band Yellow Magic Orches- street or anywhere, to check the tra, sat down to discuss why trau- sound—until I find the perfect ma stops people from listening to idea of sound. I haven’t found it music, how he considers his past a yet and am always searching. series of closed chapters and why If I were satisfied listening to he designed a playlist for one of nature though, I wouldn’t need funeral ceremony. It is not made designed a playlist for last year. his favorite New York restaurants. to write music. I still desire it, so by a person but by time, history What inspired your choices for it’s contradictory. and anonymous people. I respect that project? The sound should be You’ve said you imagine that the quality of that music more appropriate to the quality of the Bach, when composing, asked, Is there too much music to- than music written from mon- food, and also the aesthetic of the “Why is there suffering?” Do you day? At university, where I stud- ey-driven desire in our capital- space. Maybe the people, too. Ka- ask a question when you write? ied ethnomusicology, a profes- ist world. Of course, there are sin- jitsu’s food is based on traditional Bach wrote uplifting music, but sor told me about a concept that cere creators and artists, but I still Japanese kaiseki—it’s very slow and his most important works, like St. I like so much: There used to be believe there is too much music. quiet as the dishes are served one Matthew Passion, sound full of ag- many villages in Europe and by one. It doesn’t need bar music ony to me. I’m sure he was looking Asia where there was only one The right music for the right and can be nice without music, but at the tragedy and sadness of the song. That melody, with differ- space seems imperative to you, maybe some little changes might people around him. I don’t think ent lyrics, tells everything from in your films and also at the make the customers feel better. he was trying to save the world the happiness of a wedding to the restaurant Kajitsu—which you It should be atmospheric—just a “Every time it rains, I open the window and put the recorder outside.” Sakamoto wears a trench coat by COS and a shirt by Ermenegildo Zegna (worn throughout with his own clothes). KINFOLK 79 Before he became known for his work “Silence’s importance on Hollywood film scores, Sakamoto had a successful career as a pop star is increasing as I’m in Japan. getting older.” mood. Sometimes I go there just If I were asked to play it today, I to check the sound levels… and couldn’t. It was youth. Definitely many times I complain that it is it’s my past—a memory from my too loud! life that feels foreign and finished. It’s a chapter, and I always want to Such meticulous curation of a go forward. soundscape seems connected to your work making ringtones for Silence seems more critical for the phone company Nokia, too. you now. Silence’s importance is Since the early 1970s, I’ve been in- increasing as I’m getting older. terested in not only music but the In our busy postmodern cities, soundscape of the city—the noises we need it for balance, to get our and signals of our city life. Aside brains empty. People are always from being asked, that’s proba- getting input, and that means less bly why I made a lot of commer- time for expressing, which is bad. cial music for Japanese television In 2016, when I was making the al- in the ’70s and ’80s. I thought it bum async, I forbade myself from would be nice to change the Japa- looking at Facebook and Twitter. nese people’s sound environment. Just eating information makes you It’s the same reason I worked on unable to move. the Nokia ringtone: I was so tired of hearing huge sounds from the Extreme silence occurs after cellphones in airport lobbies or tragedies, you’ve observed—like on the street. That famous ring- in New York after September 11. tone—a huge, loud sound—was Why would a city react that way? ringing everywhere! People in New York needed almost one week for the shock to decrease. Do you have a seminal sound For about three days, people were memory? Probably my first mem- searching for their relatives and ory of film music: When I was loved ones, not knowing what to four or five years old, I was on my do or what was next. It was very mother’s lap in a very dark space— tense. They didn’t have the capac- probably a cinema—and I don’t re- ity to listen or think about mu- member anything about the film sic. Music comes after despera- except the theme music and that it tion. That happened to me then, was black and white. Each time the too, and after my cancer diagno- radio played that theme, I would sis. [Sakamoto was diagnosed with jump and say, “That music! That stage three throat cancer in 2014. music!” Decades later, I found it He is now in remission.] I was in was Nino Rota’s theme for Felli- shock and too tense, maybe. In ni’s La Strada. moments of life and death, there’s no possibility to listen to music. It Did you think about sounds dif- cannot save, unfortunately! ferently during your years in the Yellow Magic Orchestra than you Yet the Irish sing at wakes. Pina do today? Listening back to that Bausch repeatedly said, “Dance! music, it’s so powerful and ener- Dance! Otherwise, we are lost.” getic to me. It was considered very Not only culturally but as people, cold—“computer music”—but we need dancing and music, oth- in fact, 80 percent was manual. erwise we are lost. 80 FEATURES KINFOLK 81.