I heard yesterday that Sakamoto had died. It was from cancer, and not wholly unexpected, but it still saddens me.

The first CD I bought was the soundtrack to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. That meant I also had to buy a player for it, and then hook it up to my big receiver (the fashion of the time). Both the movie and CDs themselves came out in 1983, but I didn’t buy the disc until 1987.

Here’s “Forbidden Colours” the haunting main theme, with vocals by David Sylvian.

From the Hollywood Reporter :

“In summer 2018, it emerged that Sakamoto had found the music so bad at his favorite Japanese restaurant in Manhattan (he had long divided his time between Tokyo and New York) that he contacted the chef and offered to create a playlist. He went on to do the same for a new bar and restaurant the chef opened, without payment or fanfare.”

(The restaurant was Kajitsu, in Murray Hill. If you go to their website, you’ll find it’s now advising you to look at *.jp domain… because they’ve closed, and retrenched.)

Sakamoto won the Oscar for the music in The Last Emperor, which frequently looked like one long music video for him. But perhaps my favorite score he did was for Tony Takitani.

I’ll miss him.