Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died at the age of 71 after a long battle with cancer. His entourage made it known, a few days after his disappearance on Tuesday. Born in Nakano in 1952, and considered one of the first experimenters between oriental ethnic music and the electronic sounds of the West, Sakamoto had received numerous awards in his career including the Academy Award in 1987 for the soundtrack of the film “The Last Emperor”directed by the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.
After studying piano and graduating in composition in Tokyo, he became a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also making itself known outside Japan. He had then continued his career alone, collaborating over the years with many important artists such as Iggy Pop, Caetano Veloso, David Byrne. A great admirer of the Beatles, but also of John Coltrane and John Cage, he combined the drafting of minimalist soundtracks with the writing of avant-garde pop songs, releasing about twenty albums.
Over the years Sakamoto had had to stop more than once due to cancer: in 2014 he announced with a letter on his website that he was forced to cancel all his commitments to throat cancer. Then in 2020 he discovered he had rectal cancer, which was revealed to the public the following year. In the most recent updates, in June last year, he said he had stage four cancer, but expressed his decision to continue playing: “I hope to make music for a while longer,” he said.