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- The Analog Vault // Essential Listening - 

From his tenure with Yellow Magic Orchestra, to his Oscar and Grammy-winning film scores, to his pioneering solo work - Ryuichi Sakamoto has been hugely influential in a variety of genres throughout his groundbreaking career. But even among his accomplished discography, his 2017 album async holds a special place.

Written and composed following his throat cancer diagnosis and treatment, async finds Sakamoto in a ruminative mood. Rather than dread, the Japanese composer crafted a set of exceptionally beautiful sonic textures that embraces the human condition and rekindles one’s appreciation for the simplest things in life. Comprising electronic and acoustic instruments (ranging from the piano to a shamisen), field recordings and esoteric speech samples - async is an under-stated, ambient contemplation of mortality and infinity. A deeply affecting and existential work of art.- The Analog Vault

“Async is Sakamoto’s first solo album in eight years, without counting his 2015 score of Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant. Judging by the tone of this brilliant new album, Sakamoto is not intent on flooding his fans’ ears with a rushed barrage of multiple sonic ideas. This is a somewhat minimalist feast of keyboard beds mixed with field recordings and “found sounds” that are equally jarring and soothing. It would only be considered “new age” if your idea of new age is the revolutionary prepared piano pieces of John Cage, for example.

During the creation of async, Sakamoto came upon the concept of creating a soundtrack for a nonexistent film by the late director Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris, Andrei Rublev, Stalker), which is an odd way to approach a music project -- even someone like Sakamoto, who won an Oscar for his score of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. But using the idea of a film score makes sense as the music creates a lush yet unsettling background ambiance.” – PopMatters