Ryuichi Sakamoto gives his last concert after being diagnosed with cancer

Ryuichi Sakamoto gave what may be his last concert since being diagnosed with cancer.

Last year, the composer and founder of the Yellow Magic Orchestra was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in ten years. Sakamoto was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, which is now in remission, but rectal cancer details were shared in 2021.

At the time, the composer declared his ambition to continue making music “a little while longer” and “live with cancer,” and this month brought a new live-streamed concert, titled “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano 2022. ” and made up. of four separate performances put together.

Reflecting on the concert in a statement posted on his official website, the composer said: “My strength has gone down a lot, so it would be very difficult to do a normal concert between an hour and 90 minutes.”

And he concluded: “As a result, I recorded it song by song and edited it all together to be able to present it as a regular concert, which could be fun in the usual way, I think. Enjoy.”

You can watch footage from the concert below as well as a message from Sakamoto saying, “I don’t have the energy to do live concerts… This might be the last time you see me perform like this.”

Last month, Sakamoto announced “12,” his first studio album without a soundtrack in nearly six years.

The album, which will arrive on January 17 via Milan Records, is the follow-up to 2017’s “async”. It was recorded for 2021 and 2022, and each of its eleven poems is named after the date they were written.

Sakamoto has been keeping busy since the release of ‘async’ in 2017, recording soundtracks for several film and television projects. These include the 2019 Black Mirror episode “Smithereens” and last year’s Netflix film Beckett. Last month, Sakamoto released a soundtrack for the Netflix anime series Exception.

This month also saw the light of Sakamoto’s tribute album entitled ‘To The Moon And Back’. The compilation, released through Milan Records, includes covers of Sakamoto’s songs with Thundercat (who recently released a “remake” of “Thousand Knives”), Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange), Fennesz, the Cinematic Orchestra and others. .