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Ryuichi Sakamoto's
Chasm
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When a highly respected musician with a collection
of Grammys and Oscars releases his first solo album in nine
years, anticipation runs high-all the more so when that album
is billed as a return to pop after years of movie soundtracks
and Brazilian bossa nova.
This is the mood surrounding the release of Chasm by former
Yellow Magic Orchestra frontman and The Last Emperor Oscar
winner Ryuichi Sakamoto. So, does the emperor have new clothes?
Well, he certainly has tried on a range of fashions. Long
a mercurial figure whose wide-ranging interests have seen
him working with numerous musicians, Sakamoto has widened
his musical footprint on Chasm with all manner of style and
collaboration.
But Sakamoto seems to be going in ten different directions
at once, making Chasm a difficult album to pin down. Take,
for instance, the leadoff track, "Undercooled."
Vocal duties in this quirky song rooted in hip-hop rhythms
are handled by Korean rapper MC Sniper, who seems to be asking
people of the world to chill out at a time when tempers are
getting overheated. Cello duty is in the hands of Brazilian
Jaques Morelenbaum from Sakamoto's excellent, on-again, off-again
bossa nova trio Morelenbaum (2)/Sakamoto.
Programming comes courtesy of Sketch Show, the duo formed
by former YMO collaborators Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi.
Future pop svengali Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) contributes
a careening guitar solo, and Cao Xue Jing the plangent sounds
of the recently fashionable Chinese instrument, the violin-like
erhu.
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And that's only one song. Other tracks feature
notable contributors including New York downtown fixture Arto
Lindsay, ex-Japan vocalist David Sylvian, Celtic musician
Carlos Nunez and noted sound installation artist Ryoji Ikeda.
And then there are the samples of "voices, birds: from
lake Turkana," and Thai monks, etc.
All of this belies the term "pop." If pop consists
of simple, memorable melodies and catchy rhythms, then Chasm
is wide of the mark. Rather, it's a reflection of Sakamoto's
restless intellect, considerable ambitions, and idealistic
belief in the power of music to bring peace and effect political
change.
Admirably outspoken on the question of war and political issues
of the day, Sakamoto on the song "War & Peace"
(roll over Tolstoy) has recorded dozens of people with accents
from the world over asking provocative questions like: "Is
war as old as gravity?"
With other songs veering from indulgent, ear-rending, software-generated
noise, to dreamy ambient, to John Cage-type experimentalism,
Chasm is impossible to describe succinctly. It's the result
of a man who seems to have trouble focusing his attention
in the way that Sakamoto has so effectively in the past with
the delicious electropop of YMO or the soaring film score
for The Last Emperor. For this reason, Chasm seems unlikely
to win him new listeners, and will likely be mainly of interest
to longtime fans.
Coinciding with the release of Chasm, Sakamoto is also issuing
Documénto-Radio Sakamoto-, a compilation of music he
broadcast in 2003 on his J-Wave show, "Radio Sakamoto."
Like Chasm, the disc is wildly varied, ranging from the tweaky
techno of Hiroshi Hirose to the tropical Brazilian feel of
Bajune Tobeta to the shamisen-and-uta traditional Japanese
folk of Tsuruma Nishihara.
Chasm and Documénto -Radio
Sakamoto- are available on Warner Music Japan.
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