My favorite Sakamoto piece is Bolerish, and obvious homage to Ravel's Bolero; from the soundtrack of the little-known film "Femme Fatale"
Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
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Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#62"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…
quite a strange example. to choose piano components yet omit ivory. not all pianos are made from wood and strings either. perhaps a worn-out sword or a bursting dam would have been better, but what do I know. nice sentiment nonetheless
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.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
quite a strange example. to choose piano components yet omit ivory. not all pianos are made from wood and strings either. perhaps a worn-out sword or a bursting dam would have been better, but what do I know. nice sentiment nonetheless
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.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#64My favorite live performance of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". RIP https://youtu.be/L49FRjnhrWI
I must have listened to this piece like 2000 times
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#65Oh that sucks. Only 71... I was listening to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence just yesterday in the car. Amazing music and a pretty good movie too, if you have the stomach for it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085933/
More and more of my musical heroes are dying and I'm well aware of the fact that they aren't all that far ahead of me.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
quite a strange example. to choose piano components yet omit ivory. not all pianos are made from wood and strings either. perhaps a worn-out sword or a bursting dam would have been better, but what do I know. nice sentiment nonetheless
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.
And it's been a very long time since Ivory was used for the keys.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#67Sad 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…
Wow... thank you for posting this.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#68Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#69So sad to hear this. One of my all time favorite artists. I discovered him years ago as Yellow Magic Orchestra were a crucial influence on electro and techno. As someone into the early roots of those genres, YMO became my gateway drug into Sakamoto's wider oeuvre.
I always identified with his taste, an eclectic mix of pop, art music, classical and electronic. A true original, I will miss him greatly.
Re: Ryuichi Sakamoto has died
#70"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…
quite a strange example. to choose piano components yet omit ivory. not all pianos are made from wood and strings either. perhaps a worn-out sword or a bursting dam would have been better, but what do I know. nice sentiment nonetheless
Ivory is no longer used for piano keys for obvious reasons, that's why in marketing materials you will usually see descriptions like "ivory-feel keys".