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Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

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Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#101

Post by throwaway290 »

coldtea wrote: post #97
throwaway290 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fo…

> If there is a distributed process with countless people and organizations using intricate mechanisms to build components of mechanisms that And then someone will go on being pedantic and bring forward bees and ant colonies and the like. Let's call it "a matter of degree/scale/breadth" this might shut them up!

I was going to point out that it is kind of a spectrum but decided to try and see what I can make of binary differentiation. You're right it's not great, too vague, writing doesn't like that and favors black and white thinking and neat causality chains, but few are able to see it as a limitation of writing as medium instead of how things "actually" are.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#102

Post by eredengrin »

TeaBrain wrote: post #81
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 ha…

Do I spy a fellow T-Square fan? You have any other recommendations? I've found a few related bands in the Casiopea/T-Square family but I have a feeling there's a whole iceberg left to delve into if I can find it.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#103

Post by vintermann »

GuB-42 wrote: post #83
vintermann wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 practi…

I think you misread him. It's the soundboard that's warped. I don't think Yamaha ever made a wooden-framed grand, if such a thing even exists.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#104

Post by jefurii »

pcurve wrote: post #93

I love watching young Ryuichi Sakamoto in this film clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fvFIJpZmZA tidbit: he had rather large hand with long fingers for someone who is 171cm. I went a museum that had a cast of his hands and I was surprised at how large they were.

I bought the scores for Bibou No Aozora and a couple other pieces from his site for my wife to play and she commented that he must have big hands

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#105

Post by lo5 »

ok_computer wrote: post #48
tomduncalf wrote: post #6

Sad news. I love his work with Alva Noto, the blend of experimental piano with raw electronic sounds and glitches is really something special: https://spotify.link/2LzLYmBKFyb . I was lucky enough to see them play together a couple of times and it was spellbinding. His album “async” is a favourite too. I’ll have to dig more into his back catalogue.

Alva Noto + Sakamoto Insen is one of my favorite ambient albums. I have the insen & utp_ dvds. I’d have loved to see those concerts live. Async was solid. He was next level in writing and producing. Sakamoto’s music will be missed. He was one of the greats. Logic moon: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BTaAs8OdvX4 Solari: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Okyb-2jLo & some moog ad where his off the cuff work sounds huge and…

Agreed. Vrioon is my favorite -an exceptional album. The frequency range on those compositions is insane. Needs subs to truly appreciate it.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#106

Post by jacquesm »

vintermann wrote: post #103
GuB-42 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 practi…

I think you misread him. It's the soundboard that's warped. I don't think Yamaha ever made a wooden-framed grand, if such a thing even exists.

They used to, but once cast iron frames could be made that's how it was done, initially in several pieces, and later in one piece. The story of how this came to pass is quite interesting, making such large casts isn't simple.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#107

Post by jvidalv »

jjulius wrote: post #34

"The industrial revolution made the production of an instrument like [the piano] possible. Several planks of wood - six I think in this case - are overlaid and pressed into shape by tremendous force for six months. Nature is molded into shape. Many tons of force and pressure are applied, making the strings what they are. Matter taken from nature is molded by human industry, by the sum strength of civilization. Nature…

Humanity is nature and natural, everything we produce and do is literally just a transformation of something that already exists.

What's the difference between the honey created by bees and the nuclear waste of a nuclear reactor?

If you get rid of the pro-not-human narrative there is none.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#108

Post by vintermann »

jacquesm wrote: post #106
vintermann wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misread him. It's the soundboard that's warped. I don't think Yamaha ever made a wooden-framed grand, if such a thing even exists.

They used to, but once cast iron frames could be made that's how it was done, initially in several pieces, and later in one piece. The story of how this came to pass is quite interesting, making such large casts isn't simple.

I know about wooden frame upright pianos, but grand pianos?

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#109

Post by jacquesm »

vintermann wrote: post #108
jacquesm wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to, but once cast iron frames could be made that's how it was done, initially in several pieces, and later in one piece. The story of how this came to pass is quite interesting, making such large casts isn't simple.

I know about wooden frame upright pianos, but grand pianos?

Yes, in fact that's how it started. The 'upright' was a way to sell pianos to lower income families because it's cheaper to manufacture and easier to situate in a small home. Prior to 1825 all pianos were made of just wood, and played reasonably soft, usually with just one or at most two strings per note (that's where the term Una Corda originally comes from, now it denotes a pedal that (on grand pianos) causes the action to shift a bit to the right so it will miss a string in the higher register).

That also made them pretty finicky, changing moisture and temperature would have a significant effect on the pitch of the piano. At that time 'standard pitch' was about A4@423 Hz, considerably below what it is today (A4@440), which lessened the problems somewhat but if you wanted to have your instrument well tuned you had better learn how to tune it yourself.

For harpsichord players (the predecessor to the piano) today self tuning is still the standard.

Piano history is fascinating, if you are interested in the subject I'd recommend reading 'Of men, women and pianos' by Arthur Loesser. It's an old book but a fantastic source of historical information about the development of the piano/grand piano.

Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died

#110

Post by teknico »

Aco- wrote: post #39
daviddaviddavid wrote: post #29

Just want to share a couple great works by Sakamoto. I'm a big fan. One of my favorite bossa nova albums is A Day In New York by Morelenbaum/Sakamoto. Here's Desafinado from that album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtdR9WkOOY And his early synth-y stuff is just so hip. Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto (1978) is some badass stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGo7n6CMCcE

Couldn't agree more with this comment. I came here to share these, too. Some of his best work, imo. Here's the full album ("Casa") for those interested: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kD_LK3RoPwL6UNzGT2...

“Casa” and “A Day in New York” are among the most beautiful bossa nova records I know of.
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