Ryuichi Sakamoto arranged his funeral playlist

Ryuichi Sakamoto arranged his funeral playlist

Daily Comfort Zone

norman lebrecht

May 15, 2023

The Japanese composer was not going to leave his parting in anyone’s hands.

He put up a playlist on Spotify (you know you’re going to peek).

No fewer than 32 items, ranging from Bach to Bill Evans.

Lasting all morning and way into the afternoon.

Smart idea.

 

Comments

  • anonymous says:

    Recently rewatched “Empire Of The Sun” and was struck by how similar the soundtrack is to Lunn’s music for Downton Abbey. Are there examples of this sound before Sakamoto? Thinking of ‘Where is Armo’ and ‘Rain’
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ran9c2q0_44
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKskL6aYFA4

  • anonymous says:

    Recently rewatched “The Last Emperor” and was struck by how similar the soundtrack is to Lunn’s music for Downton Abbey. Are there examples of this sound before Sakamoto? Thinking of ‘Where is Armo’ and ‘Rain’
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ran9c2q0_44
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKskL6aYFA4

  • Russell lee says:

    Any David Sylvian compilations amongst them

    • Bulgakov says:

      Yep – ‘Orpheus’, on which I think he plays piano and for which he did the string arrangement

  • Nick2 says:

    I really fail to understand anonymous’ comments and the point of his 2 similar posts. The scores for Empire of the Sun and The Last Emperor were penned by different composers – John Williams and Ryuichi Sakamoto – and completed virtually in the same year, about a quarter of a century before John Lunn put pen to paper for his Downton Abbey score. If there was any similarity, presumably the composer of the later score must have been the one to have used ideas from Sakamoto. But having listened to all 3 scores, I fail to hear much similarity at all.

    As to music composed prior to Sakamoto’s score that might have a degree of similarity, who knows? Sakamoto was an original and the only similarity I can think of is to Sakamoto’s own score for Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence released a few years before The Last Emperor.

    As far as I can see, the music for both Rain and Where is Arno was composed several years after both Sakamoto movies, unless anonymous is referring to the 1932 Joan Crawford movie also named Rain with music that is nothing like anything Sakamoto composed!

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