Pioneer of techno-pop, Academy Award winning film composer, touring performer - Ryuichi Sakamoto enjoys a diverse career as an artist whose music continually challenges traditional categories. Pianist Chitose Okashiro, taking risks that not a single "classical pianist" has been willing to take, recognizing the greatness of the classically trained Sakamoto's piano works, and imbuing them with her own brand of explosively talented genius has herewith set the standard for "independent classical label crossover" achievement. Already a HUGE success in Japan, with sales in excess of 30,000 units, Miss Okashiro herewith reveals the complete arsenal of Sakamoto's prowess… a prowess that lands him in the position (arguably) of the world's most important composer. Included on this CD are the hugely impressionistic and French like pieces that ONLY a trained classical pianist can play with the simplicity and grace required to foster their most sublime effects.

Pioneering Japanese synth-pop group second only to Kraftwerk in influence. Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) is a Japanese electronic music band consisting of principal members Haruomi Hosono (bass and keyboards and vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums and lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards and vocals). The band's former "fourth member" was music programmer Hideki Matsutake. Collection includes all studio albums, three live albums and three compilations.

Sweet Revenge is an amazingly sophisticated album in which Sakamoto sets the distinctive and heart-rending chordal and harmonic ideas of his soundtrack work to trip-hop and neo-bossa-nova beats. The songs are fronted by a succession of guest vocalists who each contribute lyrics which add up to an amazingly coherent whole–a mature meditation on love, longing, conflict, revenge and regret. As usual, Sakamoto was ahead of his time. By spotlighting the deep poetry of J-ME and Latasha Natasha Diggs, this 1994 album anticipated by years the introspective hip-hop diva trend popularized by Lauryn Hill.

"Bricolage," a French word meaning to assemble something from available materials, is such a perfect term for the art of the remix that it's surprising no one has ever used it before. It's less surprising that Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work has always had a cool Continental flair despite the artist's Japanese roots, would choose such an elegant term for his swish remix collection. Focusing on reworks of material from 2005's back-to-the-roots electro-pop experiment Chasm, Bricolages features a cross-cultural and cross-generational batch of remixers including Cornelius, whose playful sense of pastiche is to current hipster Japanese pop what Sakamoto's Yellow Magic Orchestra was a quarter-century before; his take on the spoken word cut-up "War & Peace" is considerably lighter and groovier than Aoki Takamasa's tense, austere version. Former Japan drummer Steve Jansen, whose collaboration with Sakamoto goes back to the early '80s, contributes the skittering "Break With," bridging the gap between new wave disco and contemporary IDM.

Professor Sakamoto gives a lesson on what is practically a different style of music with each track on Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, beginning with a sure-fire hit: the extroverted, quintessentially Japanese synth workout "Field Work" (with Thomas Dolby). From there, Sakamoto hits riff-ready crossover jazz-fusion ("Etude"), electronic minimalism ("M.A.Y. in the Backyard"), and Oriental dub ("Paradise Lost"). There is a return to sampladelic Eastern synth-pop with "Steppin' Into Asia," but for the most part Sakamoto displays his impressive stylistic range on this solo album.

Following the success of 2014’s Birdman (Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director), director Alejandro G. Iñárritu pushes the limits of film making with the survival epic The Revenant. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, Wolf of Wall Street), Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises) and shot in the frozen Canadian wilderness with only natural lighting, The Revenant is a story of loss, revenge and resilience in the face of impossible odds against the furies of man and nature itself. The film is heavily favored to be a critical darling as awards season gets under way. Director Iñárritu has chosen to forgo almost all dialogue in favor of a gorgeous soundscape and a sweeping score. A film of this magnitude deserves a composer who understands creative artistry and unbridled passion. Japanese master and Oscar winner Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor) fits the bill perfectly. Along with fellow Yellow Magic Orchestra member and frequent collaborator Alva Noto, Sakamoto has created a gripping soundtrack that is sure to be a treat for the winter crowds. Bryce Dessner (writer for Kronos Quartet and the LA Phil) also supplies additional music.

This is awesome score of Sakamoto's for "Taboo" (Gohatto), from master filmmaker Nagisa Oshima with this revisionist Samurai epic…film is set in 1865 during critical times in Japanese history, a struggle between tradition and internationally minded government. With breath-taking cinematography by Toyomichi Kurita, takes on epic proportions with an outstanding cast of actors…this film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Our composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto who gave us - "The Last Emperor" (1987) (Academy Award Winner)…"The Sheltering Sky" (1990)…"High Heels" (1991)…"Tokyo Decadence" (1991)…"Little Buddha" (1993) and "Wild Palms" (1993)…is up for another challenge with this captivating score. For "Taboo", Sakamoto uses every electronic sound from elaborate to technical for dramatic and mood swings for his cues…lightness in tone, softer, with mid-range support of counterpoints, rising and falling synthesized tones.

High Heels (Spanish: Tacones lejanos) is a 1991 Spanish melodrama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Marisa Paredes, Victoria Abril and Miguel Bosé. The plot follows the fractured relationship between a self-involved mother who is a famous torch song singer and the grown daughter she had abandoned as a child. The daughter, who works as a TV newscaster, has married her mother's ex-lover and has befriended a female impersonator. A murder further complicates this web of relationships. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The score composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Beauty is the eighth solo studio album by Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Beauty is notable for its "collage of styles" that range from rock, techno, and classical to flamenco, African, and Japanese traditional. In discussing whether music is narrative and illustrative or an abstract medium, Sakamoto said, "I have visions sometimes when I'm writing contemporary music, even when it's very logical. For example, for one of my songs on the album Beauty, I was always having visions of Amazonian rainforests, a little plane flying very low over the trees. Trees, trees, trees, and some birds. But the title of the song is 'Calling from Tokyo'." Recorded at various sound studios throughout Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles, Beauty features many collaborators that include Arto Lindsay, Brian Wilson, Robbie Robertson, and Sly Dunbar.

Collection includes: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Makoto Ozone, Nobuyuki Nakajima, Fazil Say, Takashi Kako, Michel Camilo & Moriya Saito.

Morelenbaum² / Sakamoto is a trio formed with Japanese composer and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto by Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and his wife, vocalist Paula Morelenbaum. In 2002, they released a debut album Casa (meaning "house" in Portuguese). The album is a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim with an emphasis on a lesser-known material, recorded at Jobim's home in Rio. Paula and Jaques had been touring in a band with Antonio Carlos in 1984–1994, and Sakamoto played in a bossa nova group as a teenager, returning to the genre in his mature qualification. Morelenbaum² / Sakamoto second album A Day In New York presents five more compositions of Jobim plus three extra tracks from other composers, as well as new versions of songs from Casa. Collection includes: Casa (2001); Live In Tokyo (2001) and A Day in New York (2003).

In the liner notes to his 2003 compilation CD moto.tronic, mercurial composer Ryuichi Sakamoto writes, "I want to break down the walls between genres, categories and cultures." Based on the restless variety of his output, he's done it. On this 14-track collection that emphasizes already available work from the late 1980s and '90s, we get soundtrack scores, solo piano, and remixes as well as syth-pop, techno, classical, and bossa nova music.

Inspired by both Brazilian music and the boundless possibilities of the Internet, electronic composer Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote Smoochy, an endlessly intriguing exploration of what happens when the old world meets the future. Using his Brazilian Internet concept as a foundation, Sakamoto goes on to add a variety of other musics, including jazz and Latin pop, to the music, creating a dense and fascinating musical web of electronics and percussion. Occasionally, he gets too self-consciously arty for his own good, but most of the album finds Sakamoto at his best.]

Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto first entered the public ear in the late 1970s, as a member of the seminal electro-synth band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Although short-lived, the band and its quirky approach to dance music influenced a generation of synth-poppers and techno artists. Sakamoto released a few experimental albums while still with YMO, but his solo career began in earnest with the acclaimed all-synth soundtrack to the 1982 film MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE, which established him as a composer of some valence. His atmospheric film scores (THE SHELTERING SKY, THE LAST EMPEROR) and adventuresome collaborations with jazz, pop, and world musicians have contributed to his continued reputation as a visionary artist.

A collaboration between two of the best-known names in ambient music, the Japanese musician Ryuchi Sakamoto and the Austrian electronica artist Christian Fennesz, CENDRE is a hushed delight from start to finish, containing stately, minimalist pieces such as "Aware," "Kuni," and "Amorph." Fennesz provides the weightless electronic backdrop, into which Sakamoto drops precise chords that ripple the aural surface like smooth pebbles dropped into a pool.