Ryuichi Sakamoto has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#81

Post by TeaBrain » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 11:42 PM UTC

BossHogg wrote: post #41

This is as surprising to me as it is sad. 2 of 3 YMO members now gone at 70 and 71 which seems very young given the renown of Japanese longevity. Anyway, Beauty is a favorite album from my childhood so probably time for a re-listen.

A number of prolific Japanese Jazz keyboardists/pianists have died relatively young. Hirotaka Izumi, who played keyboards for T-Square and Pyramid, died from acute heart failure at 62. The Japanese Jazz composer and pianist Jun Fukamachi, who released an average of over one album per year in his 39 years as a band leader, died from an aortic dissection at 64. Japanese jazz pianist and composer Hiromasa Suzuki, who has over a hundred album writing credits to his name, died at 61.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#82

Post by kompressor » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 11:48 PM UTC

My mom was the babysitter of his son (with Norika) for a few years in the 90s. I was around 6-7 years old. I remember Norika as being incredibly kind. She would let my mom bring me to their home often while babysitting their toddler. We had just immigrated from China, so I was decked out in very fobby clothing. Norika took me to The Gap one day and bought a whole new wardrobe for me. I'm still grateful for her kind gesture 30 years later. I never spoke with Ryuichi. To me, he was just this mysterious man who occasionally showed up at the apartment and would go straight to his studio.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#83

Post by GuB-42 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 12:35 AM UTC

vintermann wrote: post #63

jjulius wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The piano fits for Sakamoto over a sword or a dam because he is a musician who spent his life with the piano as his primary instrument. It's where he is most experienced and he has a much closer relationship to that than a dam or a sword. Ivory is also typically only used for the keys, and doesn't actually impact the tuning of the instrument.

He was also referencing a specific piano, an old Yamaha piano in the gymnasium of Miyagi Agricultural High School, which had been damaged by the tsunami. It seems very unlikely that a high school Yamaha grand piano had ivory keys.

What surprises me is that the description seems to imply a wooden framed piano.

They exist, but they are notoriously difficult to tune and keep in tune compared to iron framed pianos. I think they have stopped making them for quite a while. I find it hard to imagine a high school using an instrument requiring so much maintenance.

If it was indeed a wooden framed piano, it was probably more of an antique than a practical instrument, and so, maybe with ivory keys, though again I doubt it.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#84

Post by msla » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 12:43 AM UTC

tantivy wrote: post #54

hungryforcodes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though we ourselves are by definition part of the universe and thus nature.

“Nature” and “natural” are normative terms that commonly distinguish the world altered and created by humans from the world that isn’t altered or created by humans. It’s clear in context that Sakamoto is using the term accurately in a normative sense, not making a semantic error.

And that normative sense succeeds in separating humanity from nature, creating an "Us vs It" narrative that makes pollution easier to ignore.

After all, if everything humanity does is pollution, why single any specific acts out?

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#85

Post by ChainOfFools » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 12:51 AM UTC

kompressor wrote: post #82

My mom was the babysitter of his son (with Norika) for a few years in the 90s. I was around 6-7 years old. I remember Norika as being incredibly kind. She would let my mom bring me to their home often while babysitting their toddler. We had just immigrated from China, so I was decked out in very fobby clothing. Norika took me to The Gap one day and bought a whole new wardrobe for me. I'm still grateful for her kind g…

Is this the same "Miss Sakamoto" who as the wife of Ryuchi, peripherally involved in the production of Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me With Science, inspired the quote from the scientist in that song?

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#86

Post by the-rc » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 12:59 AM UTC

ChainOfFools wrote: post #85

kompressor wrote: post #82

My mom was the babysitter of his son (with Norika) for a few years in the 90s. I was around 6-7 years old. I remember Norika as being incredibly kind. She would let my mom bring me to their home often while babysitting their toddler. We had just immigrated from China, so I was decked out in very fobby clothing. Norika took me to The Gap one day and bought a whole new wardrobe for me. I'm still grateful for her kind g…

Is this the same "Miss Sakamoto" who as the wife of Ryuchi, peripherally involved in the production of Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me With Science, inspired the quote from the scientist in that song?

No, if anyone, that would have been his first wife Akiko Yano, who is a jazz piano player and singer. She can be seen in footage from live YMO performances, as an additional band member.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#87

Post by the-rc » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 1:05 AM UTC

davidjade wrote: post #59

steponlego wrote: post #40

My wife and I were just talking yesterday about how we hoped Ryuichi would make another album before he died.

“12” was released just this last January. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_(Ryuichi_Sakamoto_album)

Recently, he also streamed multiple times over a weekend this one hour "concert", actually a compilation of pieces he played with obvious difficulty in a Tokyo studio, over an entire week. There's supposed to be a release of that, too, at some point.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#88

Post by MichaelZuo » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 1:26 AM UTC

tantivy wrote: post #54

hungryforcodes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though we ourselves are by definition part of the universe and thus nature.

“Nature” and “natural” are normative terms that commonly distinguish the world altered and created by humans from the world that isn’t altered or created by humans. It’s clear in context that Sakamoto is using the term accurately in a normative sense, not making a semantic error.

This would imply every human action is 'unnatural'...

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#89

Post by the-rc » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 1:35 AM UTC

I always managed to miss him live, to my regret. I have his COVID-era box set with a fragment of the plate that he hand painted, broke and recorded, but it feels so sad to never have been in the same room or crossed his path randomly in NYC (one can dream). Having never experienced a Morricone performance, either, and knowing that I'd probably never see Ryuichi on stage, is what drove me this year to see as many favorite musical acts live as possible, before it's too late.

Sakamoto had a way of doing and thinking through things better than many, but still with some sort of simplicity. I mean, he was in a class of his own even for something as mundane as washing hands: https://youtu.be/VnV4GGXIhfM (of course, this hits differently now than when it first came out)

RIP Ryuichi

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#90

Post by throwaway290 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 2:36 AM UTC

MichaelZuo wrote: post #88

tantivy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Nature” and “natural” are normative terms that commonly distinguish the world altered and created by humans from the world that isn’t altered or created by humans. It’s clear in context that Sakamoto is using the term accurately in a normative sense, not making a semantic error.

This would imply every human action is 'unnatural'...

I think the key is "world".

If you yourself can cut a tree down and do whatever else to make a piano, there's no world created by humans. It'll take you a while but in the end there's only you and your shiny new piano and nature.

If there is a distributed process with countless people and organizations using intricate mechanisms to build components of mechanisms that build mechanisms that extract natural resources for building mechanisms for preparing different parts that are eventually put together as a piano (which itself is almost a side effect, a minor detail almost no participant of the process sees or even knows about)... that's a world. If you click a button and have this thing show up at your house and not know a bit about what goes into it much less do it yourself... that's a world.