On Wednesday or Thursday this last week, a day after re-watching the Ryuichi Sakamoto performance at the Armory that is included as an extra on the Coda blu-ray, I decided to re-watch the documentary itself. As I closed the disc tray, I remember wondering why there hadn’t been any news on Sakamoto’s condition lately, but then concluding that he must still be hanging on. News on his official Instagram feed had been sparse lately, particularly since the death of his YMO bandmate Takahashi in January. The most most recent item announced the May release of a 2-disc compilation curated by the film director Alejandro González Iñárritu. 

On Friday and Saturday, I chose Sakamoto’s 1986 album 未来派野郎 (Futurista) as my in-car listening, thinking that maybe he’s got a little more time.

As it turned out, he was already gone.

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