Ryuichi Sakamoto’s infinite spaces
thefader.comRyuichi Sakamoto is standing next to a melting Arctic glacier, tapping finger cymbals together. His face is transformed; the wrinkles of old age become a child’s laugh lines as he absorbs the majesty of the sound, transformed by its environment.
Now he’s in a destroyed auditorium in Fukushima, drawn to what he calls “the corpse of a piano” nearly destroyed by the tidal wave disaster but still dutifully creaking out notes from underneath Sakamoto’s fingers.
Now he’s in his New York studio, composing music for his album async. That may not be entirely accurate: he’s searching, hunting for the perfect sound of metal, rubbing a coffee mug against a cymbal — no, that’s not quite right — and pulling a bow against a gong — is that closer?
Who can say? There are questions about music that only Sakamoto thought to ask. These scenes, taken from the 2017 documentary film Coda, are helpful to access a legacy that can seem too imposing to fully reckon with.
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