It has been announced that the late Ryuichi Sakamoto‘s album ‘Opus’ will be receiving a posthumous release.
‘Opus’ is set for release on August 9 via Milan Records (pre-order/pre-save here). Along with the announcement of the posthumous release, the LP’s lead single ‘Tong Poo’ has been released. The track is a rendition of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s song from their 1978 self-titled debut album. The new rendition of ‘Tong Poo’ is a slow-tempo piano version which was performed for the first time at Sakamoto’s 2022 concert.
The album was taken from a “final, private piano concert” which the musician performed back in 2022 at his NHK 509 Studio in Tokyo. ‘Opus’ features reworked and reimagined songs from Sakamoto’s career such as film scores and songs from Yellow Magic Orchestra.
‘Opus’ captures Sakamoto’s final concert performance which was completed across multiple sessions due to the musician’s declining health. His son, Neo Sora, filmed the sessions and compiled them into a documentary of the same name. The film will premiere online this Sunday (June 30) at 8pm EST (1am BST) on the Criterion Channel. After the streaming premiere, the documentary will be available exclusively on the Criterion Channel.
In a five-star review of the documentary, NME shared: “It’s one gut-punch after another when you realise 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.”
‘Opus’ tracklist is:
1. ‘Lack of Love’
2. ‘BB*’
3. ‘Andata’
4. ‘Solitude’
5. ‘for Jóhann*’
6. ‘Aubade 2020’
7. ‘Ichimei – small happiness’
8. ‘Mizu no Naka no Bagatelle’
9. ‘Bibo no Aozora’
10. ‘Aqua’
11. ‘Tong Poo*’
12. ‘The Wuthering Heights’
13. ‘20220302 – sarabande’
14. ‘The Sheltering Sky’
15. ‘20180219 (w/prepared piano)’
16. ‘The Last Emperor’
17. ‘Trioon’
18. ‘Happy End’
19. ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’
20. ‘Opus – ending’
*New or never-before-recorded
Sakamoto provided a statement on the project after it was recorded prior to his death, and shared: “The project was conceived as a way to record my performances—while I was still able to perform—in a way that is worth preserving for the future.
“In some sense, while thinking of this as my last opportunity to perform, I also felt that I was able to break new ground. Simply playing a few songs a day with a lot of concentration was all I could muster at this point in my life. Perhaps due to the exertion, I felt utterly hollow afterwards, and my condition worsened for about a month. Even so, I feel relieved that I was able to record before my death—a performance that I was satisfied with.”
Elsewhere, in a five-star review of Sakamoto’s posthumous mixed-reality gig ‘Kagami’ earlier this year, NME shared: “Beyond the music itself and the technical capabilities, Kagami comes with ethical relief. To know that Sakamoto was engaged with the project at the end of his life and openly pushed its attendees to question the validity of the images in front of them – his resurrection, namely – only strengthens the experience. It’s one that could possibly only work for a master as restless and inventive as himself.”
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