Ryuichi Sakamoto(1)

It has been about three weeks since I heard the news that a great musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto, had passed away. But I have still not been able to accept the fact. He is still alive in my heart. The other day, I watched one of his concerts on WOWOW. It was the one held in 2014, and he was on stage with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. He played a lot of music for about two hours. His performance was so great and energetic as to make me forget the time. That made me see that he was, and still is, in my heart. I had never been in such a mood before. In other words, he has had a significant presence in my heart. It was when I bought an album by a music band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, in my university days that I knew him. The band consisted of three members, one of whom was Ryuichi Sakamoto. When I heard his music, 'Technopolis', on the album for the first time, it sounded very strange to me. It was because I had never heard that kind of music before, and it was quite new to me. While I was listening to it again and again, however, my ears got used to it, and it sounded pleasant. Since then, he has captured my heart. Ryuichi Sakamoto will always be in my heart.

Since I heard that Ryuichi Sakamoto-san had passed away, I have been watching or listening to a lot of his performances. First, I watched his joint concert with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra on WOWOW. It calmed me down and reminded me of a lot of things about him. Then, I also watched another one of his on WOWOW. He played piano in a trio for piano, violin and cello. It entertained me, too. But nothing beats listening to music at a live concert. I have been to his concert only once. It was held about ten years ago at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. During the concert, he continued to play music but little talked. I really liked his simple way of performing at the concert. It is the best of the concerts and musicals I have ever attended. I also have a lot of his music CDs. Among them are ‘Out of Noise' and 'Asyn' that are my favourite albums. They helped me to settle down. Above all, I like listening to `Hibari` from the Out of Noise album. I will continue to listen to his music to find something new.