R.I.P. Ryuichi Sakamoto, Oscar-winning composer
Sakamoto was also a co-founder of influential electropop band Yellow Magic Orchestra
Influential composer, musician, and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto—who won an Oscar for composing the score for 1987’s The Last Emperor along with David Byrne and Cong Su—has died following a lengthy battle with cancer. Sakamoto also won a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globes, and he was a member of pioneering electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra. The news was confirmed by Sakamoto’s social media account, which posted this morning that he had died on March 28. Sakamoto was 71.
Sakamoto was born in Tokyo in 1952, and The Hollywood Reporter notes that he was “surrounded by music, art, and culture from a young age”—he even began playing piano when he was only three and attended “the same famously liberal and creative preschool as Yoko Ono.” He began working with electronic music in the ‘70s while at Tokyo University, and he formed Yellow Magic Orchestra with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1978. The groundbreaking electropop group gained international acclaim and has left a longstanding impression on various genres (including electronic, of course, but also hip hop and pop).
Sakamoto also released solo albums, including 1980’s B-2 Unit, which includes the song “Riot In Lagos”—an early electro song that helped lay the groundwork for modern dance music. In 1983, he appeared alongside David Bowie in the war film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, for which he also co-wrote the score with regular collaborator David Sylvain.
A few years later, Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su scored Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, and in addition to the Oscar, the score won a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and a BAFTA. Sakamoto won a second Golden Globe for scoring 1990’s The Sheltering Sky and a earned a Grammy nomination for scoring Little Buddha, and he also contributed to the Oscar-winning soundtrack for 2006’s Babel. His other film work includes Wild Palms, Snake Eyes, Femme Fatale, Gohatto, Japanese Story, and The Revenant.
The 2017 documentary Coda explores Sakamoto’s career and cancer diagnosis.