I was aware of that theme of mortality in my music since around 2009. The decaying and the disappearance of the piano sound is very much symbolic of life and mortality. It's not sad. I just meditate about it. Ryuichi Sakamoto More Quotes by Ryuichi Sakamoto More Quotes From Ryuichi Sakamoto I'm just delighted to be living, to be able to have a simple conversation, to feel a ray of sunlight on my skin and listen to the breeze move through the leaves of a tree. Ryuichi Sakamoto skin feel simple tree Hopefully, we will become a stronger democratic society and avoid falling into xenophobia. Hopefully, we build good relationships with our neighboring countries and, rather than acting for profit for the current generation, acting in a way that will ensure we leave natural resources for future generations. Ryuichi Sakamoto good future society way Music is like nuclear plants. In a way, it's true! Music is totally artificial. Still using some material from nature, a piano is assembled with wood and iron. Nuclear power uses material from nature, but it's been manipulated by humans, and it produces something unnatural. Ryuichi Sakamoto plants music nature power The world is full of sounds. We just don't usually hear them as music. Ryuichi Sakamoto hear just music world Hollywood is a double feeling. Love and hate. With a talented film director, I cannot resist. They are such charming and intelligent people. But each time, it is very difficult to deal with other people. I have to satisfy other people. The director or the producer. Not me. I have to satisfy myself. But then I have to deliver my music. Ryuichi Sakamoto myself me music love Art is often defined as a famous masterpiece in a gallery, and we are meant to visit the work and view it to appreciate it. But that is not all there is. Ryuichi Sakamoto view appreciate work art In Japanese culture, there is a belief that God is everywhere - in mountains, trees, rocks, even in our sympathy for robots or Hello Kitty toys. Ryuichi Sakamoto mountains god sympathy culture I want to be lazier. This is the luxurious dream I have: Doing nothing all day, just watching the clouds and DVDs. Ryuichi Sakamoto nothing day dream clouds I was working with the computer at university and playing jazz in the daytime, buying west-coast psychedelic and early Kraftwerk records in the afternoon, and playing folk at night. I was quite busy! Ryuichi Sakamoto university jazz busy night A young musician needs a powerful laptop and a good analogue synthesiser. Ryuichi Sakamoto laptop good powerful young I have a cultural map in my head, where I find similarities between different cultures. For example, domestic Japanese pop music sounds like Arabic music to me - the vocal intonations and vibrato - and, in my mind, Bali is next to New York. Maybe everyone has these geographies in their head. This is the way I've been working. Ryuichi Sakamoto me music mind way Conceptually, I am open to mistakes - errors, actually. I do play lots of wrong notes while I am making some music, and a mistake or a wrong note is like a gift for me: 'Oh, wow, an unknown sound or an unknown harmony. I didn't know about this.' Ryuichi Sakamoto i-am me music mistake I went to see one of those pianos drowned in tsunami water near Fukushima and recorded it. Of course, it was totally out of tune, but I thought it was beautiful. I thought, 'Nature tuned it.' Ryuichi Sakamoto thought nature beautiful water My main interest in synthesizers when I was an older teenager was to escape from the spell of the 12-tone system or, in a more broad sense, the spell of the European modern-music system. That led me to explore towards electronic music and ethnic music. Ryuichi Sakamoto escape more me music Piano symbolizes interiority. Ryuichi Sakamoto piano You're changing every day, right? Your curiosities and ambitions change, your ear changes, the music you like changes - and the music you want to make, too. Ryuichi Sakamoto day you music change An artist's initial broad stroke is always most impactful, and obsessively adding layer upon layer of paint to fill in details often diminishes the painting's aura. When an aura is lost, it is impossible to get back. Ryuichi Sakamoto painting details artist impossible Since the early 1990s, I had been very worried about the state of the environment, and by the end of that decade, I realized I needed to do something about it. Ryuichi Sakamoto decade end something environment It was a very rare moment in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear plant accident. Ordinary people went out to the streets to speak anti-nuclear sentiments. Ryuichi Sakamoto moment plant speak people I'm very shy about seeing my own face on the screen. Ryuichi Sakamoto face own my-own shy
