Crop of photograph of Ryuichi Sakamoto on the cover of his 1978 album, Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Photo by Makoto Iida.

A few words about Ryuichi Sakamoto

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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55mix

55mix

PART 1 (44m 08s)
Birds Gotta Swim – Martin Mull
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Shipping Container – Ruby Throat
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Life, Life – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Here Come a Raincloud (live) – China Crisis
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Help Me Somebody (live) – David Byrne
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
The Ink in the Well (live) – David Sylvian
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Don’t Worry About After Death (Shaka Shaka Nippon) – Melon
Theme for Great Cities – Simple Minds
Headless Chicken – Thought Gang
It’s Steeper Near the Roses – Harold Budd

PART 2 (44m 49s)
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
O.D. (Optimistic Depression) – Melon
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
The Flat Earth – Thomas Dolby
Firefly – Vertigo Angels
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
A Bridge to the Rings of Saturn – dip in the pool
Blackstar (pt 1) – David Bowie
The Day it Rained Forever – Nick Heyward
Blackstar (pt 2) – David Bowie
Next – Skylab
Speak to Me/Breathe/Breathe (reprise) – Pink Floyd

(16 March 2018)

State of Mind—December 16, 1992: The playlist

Here are the contents of the mixtape referenced in my previous post…
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