‘Opus’: Album of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last performance announced with lead single ‘Tong Poo’
nme.comRyuichi Sakamoto‘s album ‘Opus’ will be receiving a posthumous release.‘Opus’ is set for release on August 9 via Milan Records (pre-order/pre-save here).
Along with the announcement of the posthumous release, the LP’s lead single ‘Tong Poo’ has been released. The track is a rendition of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s song from their 1978 self-titled debut album.
The new rendition of ‘Tong Poo’ is a slow-tempo piano version which was performed for the first time at Sakamoto’s 2022 concert.The album was taken from a “final, private piano concert” which the musician performed back in 2022 at his NHK 509 Studio in Tokyo. ‘Opus’ features reworked and reimagined songs from Sakamoto’s career such as film scores and songs from Yellow Magic Orchestra.‘Opus’ captures Sakamoto’s final concert performance which was completed across multiple sessions due to the musician’s declining health.
His son, Neo Sora, filmed the sessions and compiled them into a documentary of the same name. The film will premiere online this Sunday (June 30) at 8pm EST (1am BST) on the Criterion Channel.
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