During the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, Kraftwerk presented a cover of ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’, as a tribute to the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto, who passed away in March 2023 at the age of 71, was renowned for his illustrious career as a composer and musician. His soundtrack for the 1983 war film of the same name – a film in which he starred alongside David Bowie – was one of the key reasons for its later success.
Sakamoto, diagnosed with cancer for the second time in a decade, had originally been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, which was now in remission. His contribution to the music industry as a pioneering electronic musician inspired artists worldwide. A posthumous album titled ‘Opus’, is set to be released on August 9, which was taken from a “final, private piano concert” which the musician performed back in 2022 at his NHK 509 Studio in Tokyo.
The documentary of the same name filmed by his son, Neo Sora, captures Sakamoto’s final concert performance and features reworked and reimagined songs from his career such as scores from film and songs from Yellow Magic Orchestra. After the streaming premiere, the documentary will be available exclusively on the Criterion Channel.
NME critiqued the documentary, describing it as “one gut-punch after another when you realize what it means as Sakamoto lets every note breathe until it fades out. The work presented is an opus, and this is as intimate and human a concert film as you’ll ever see. As with his recent posthumous mixed-reality gigs in London and his final film score on Monster, Opus is yet another priceless gift from a once-in-a-lifetime talent – and a reminder of what we’ve lost. Goodbye maestro – and thank you.”
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