Famous Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

japanese composer ryuichi sakamotoone of the most prominent contemporary music artists, died on March 28 at the age of 71, as a result of rectal cancer, which he had made public in June 2022 through his official networks.

The news of the death of the experimental creator and responsible for famous soundtracks, among which films such as “The last Emperor”with which he won an Oscar, “The Revenant” and “Far Heels”to name just a few, was released today from a brief message on his official Twitter account that includes his date of birth and death.

Last June he had written when giving an account of his illness: “From now on, until my body gives out, I’ll probably continue to keep this kind of ‘diary’.”. She was referring to a text about “12”, her last album released two months ago.

It happens that the artist had already overcome laryngeal cancer in 2014 but this time he was aware of the advanced degree of his disease. On that occasion he had warned that as long as he could, he would dedicate himself to continue creating what he called “musical sketches”.

A tireless experimenter, Sakamoto had been the founder in the early 70s of the famous Yellow Magic Orchestra from Tokyo, his hometown, where he worked as a keyboardist and vocalist, and had stood out for the various musical currents on which he had experimented.

From that place, he was constantly summoned for soundtracks, at the same time that he was syndicated as a source of inspiration in the appearance of techno music.

Throughout his career as a soloist, launched in 1978 with his album “Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto”, he carried out collaborations with artists as dissimilar as David Sylvian, David Byrne, Aztec Camara, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop, John Lydon, Brian Wilson and Robbie RobertsonAmong many.

It happens that Sakamoto did not find stylistic limits when creating and used to immerse himself in the sounds of different parts of the world, which is why his work contains traits of African music, bossa nova -there are a series of records with the cellist Jaques Morelenbaum recreating themes of Antonio Carlos Jobim-, synthetic and electronic music, in addition to his renowned research on oriental music.

In addition to music for films, perhaps his big screen at a popular level, Sakamoto was also responsible for the opening music of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.

His face also became known thanks to the war drama “Furyo”from 1983, starring David Bowiewith whom he shared a famous scene in which they gave each other a remembered kiss.

In our country, Sakamoto had in Luis Alberto Spinetta to one of his great admirers, who mentioned him as one of his great influences in various interviews.

According to international media reports, his record company chose to fire him with one of his favorite phrases that painted him whole body: “Ars longa, vita brevis” (“Art is lasting, life is brief”).