Biography of sakamoto ryuichi

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the irreplaceable Japanese composer, musician and sound curator, who died on March 28 at the age of 71 and whose status as both genius and innovator seems more than assured, was an artist who well understood the ongoing cumulative and ultimately collaborative nature of human creativity.

He also seemed at perfect ease with his place in that great conversation.

From his earliest days as a student at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, through stints as a solo artist and session musician that led him to massive domestic and sizeable international fame alongside Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi as YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra); through mid-life success as an in-demand and much celebrated soundtrack composer and into the final contemplative chapters of his life, Sakamoto not only made in-depth studies of what had come before him, but simultaneously learned from and influenced the present.

Despite long periods working in relative seclusion, he want