Status: 04/02/2023 3:57 p.m
He was one of the most influential and world-renowned Japanese musicians: Ryuichi Sakamoto. According to Japanese media reports, the film, jazz and avant-garde pop composer has now died at the age of 71.
The Japanese broadcaster NHK reports that the musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died at the age of 71. The musician’s website announced that he had died of cancer on March 28th.
Sakamoto was one of the most famous musicians in Japan. He initially worked as a jazz musician, but also found pleasure in European classical music and traditional forms of music from Asia and Africa. In the late 1970s he co-founded the Yellow Magic Orchestra, which specialized in electropop and quickly became one of the most popular and influential bands in Japan.
Oscar-winning film composer
Sakamoto became known internationally primarily through his film compositions and collaborations with artists such as Madonna, David Sylvian, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop and David Byrne. Together with the latter, he won an Oscar in 1988 for work on the soundtrack to the film “The Last Emperor”.
He also composed the music for films such as “Silk” and “Himmel über der Wüste”. He was also seen as an actor alongside David Bowie in the film “Furyo – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”. In 2018 he acted as a jury member at the Berlin International Film Festival.
His last solo album “12”, released in January of this year, dealt with the composer’s state of health. Sakamoto was diagnosed with cancer in 2020.