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"The late, influential musician, composer and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) once, in the exuberance of youth, believed himself to be the reincarnation of Claude Debussy, whom he considered “the door to all 20th-century music.” Classically trained and educated in ethnomusicology, theory and composition, Sakamoto—a student not just of the 20th century but of all those that came before it—came to redefine and further the sound of his own. From the futuristic chorus of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers he arranged as a member of the pioneering Yellow Magic Orchestra (alongside bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi), to his pursuit of avant-garde experimentation and exploration of world music, his was a seemingly prescient career marked by constant reinvention as a soloist and collaborator. Dedicating himself to a life of discovery and the embrace of new sounds and textures, Sakamoto dreamed up new musical idioms, always guided by the ethos that “anything could be music”—a trickling stream, melting ice caps or the urban sounds of a rush-hour commuter train.
On the occasion of the publication of his newly translated autobiography Music Sets You Free, Japan Society presents a series of rarely-seen films from Sakamoto’s sprawling 40-year career as a film composer—a trajectory propelled by his film score debut in Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence."—Japan Society