From techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning film composer, the evolution of Ryuichi Sakamoto's music has coincided with his life journeys. Following Fukushima, Sakamoto became an iconic figure in Japan's social movement against nuclear power. As Sakamoto returns to music following a cancer diagnosis, his haunting awareness of life crises leads to a resounding new masterpiece. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA is an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.
Portrait of Ryuichi Sakamoto, from pop icon of Japan's technological aspirations to leading activist post-Fukushima, returning to music after cancer for major opus that may be his last.
"The piano doesn't sustain sound. Left alone, the sound attenuates and disappears. Perpetual sound is... essentially the opposite of piano, because the notes never fade. I suppose in literary terms, it would be like a metaphor for eternity."
In confronting his (and our) mortality, Ryuichi Sakamoto meditates on the perpetuity of music that overlays the finality to his existence.
"Music... requires peace."
Sakamoto finds a special purity in the trees as he wanders the forest, in the ice caves as he peers under glaciers, in a Tsunami-surviving piano left "retuned by nature", absorbing the world as his soundstage.
Such is an artist's mind.
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"The piano doesn't sustain sound. Left alone, the sound attenuates and disappears. Perpetual sound is... essentially the opposite of piano, because the notes never fade. I suppose in literary terms, it would be like a metaphor for eternity."
In confronting his (and our) mortality, Ryuichi Sakamoto meditates on the perpetuity of music that overlays the finality to his existence.
"Music... requires peace."
Sakamoto finds a special purity in the trees as he wanders the forest, in the ice caves as he peers under glaciers, in a Tsunami-surviving piano left "retuned by nature", absorbing the world as his soundstage.
Such is an artist's mind.