As a tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto on the first anniversary of his passing, Caro C talks to Richard Barbieri, Natalie Beridze and Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto, three musicians who were fortunate enough to collaborate with him. Here, they share some insights into his mindset and methodologies.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:44 - Richard Barbieri
09:04 - Natalie Beridze
19:45 - Carsten Nicolai / Alva Noto
Ryuichi Sakamoto Biog
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a multi award-winning keyboardist, songwriter, composer and producer who along with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, became pioneers of the electronic music genre in Honsono's band Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Prior to his success with the band, Sakamoto earned a B.A. in music composition and worked as a session musician and producer. Alongside his success with the band, he continued his solo work, releasing solo albums and collaborations, experimenting with various genres and fusing traditional with electronic. This work led to him scoring more than 30 films throughout his career, his most famous being Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and The Last Emperor. In his later career he composed a multimedia opera, sampled a glass building for use in one of his works and traveled to the Arctic to record the sound of melting snow.
Richard Barbieri Biog
Hailing from London, Richard joined the British band Japan in 1975 and saw huge success around the world until they split in 1982. He continued to work with David Sylvian, as well as Sylvian’s brother, Steve Jansen on separate projects. He reunited with Sylvian, Jansen and bass player Mick Karn for the Rain Tree Crow project and continued to play with Steve & Mick as part of ‘JBK’. In the early 1990s, the three of them teamed up with Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson as part of No-Man and it was here that Barbieri and Wilson would begin their long musical association. Porcupine Tree had initially been a Wilson solo project but he recruited Richard in 1993 and over the next 17 years, became one of the shining lights of the neo-prog / pop scene, embracing a more heavy style as the years went on. Reuniting in 2021, they released the first Porcupine Tree album in 12 years with 2022’s ‘Closure/ Continuation’, a critically acclaimed return to form. Richard has a large body of solo work which he started to release in 2005 and still does to this day.
http://www.richardbarbieri.co.uk/
Natalie Beridze Biog
Natalie Beridze is a Georgian music composer and songwriter. Since 2003 Natalie has been performing live concerts worldwide, and has been known as the first female electronic music artist from Georgia. From 2002-2008 she lived in Cologne and produced music under the artist name TBA. She’s released music in Europe on Max.E, Monika Enterprise, CMYK, Laboratory Instinct, CES Records DADO records, Apollo Records Chainmusic, CES Records and ROOM40.
In addition to her solo projects, Beridze has collaborated with artists such as Thomas Brinkmann, AGF (Antye Greie), Gudrun Gut, Joerg Follert, Marcus Schmickler, Nika Machaidze aka Nikakoi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gacha Bakradze, Alex Kordzaia, Annika Henderson, Antye Greie-Fuchs, Barbara Morgenstern, Beate Bartel, Danielle De Picciotto, Gudrun Bredemann, Lucrecia Dalt, Merja Kokkonen, Mommo G, Natalie Beridze, Pilocka Krach, Sonae. Beridze’s music is part of Adam Curtis’s recent BBC Documentary series “Can’t get you out of my head”. She also creates works for piano, orchestra and choir, which have been performed by a number of artists and the Tbilisi state opera orchestra. Her recent compositions for piano, keyboard, soprano and tape are part of the ongoing program of Zurich based Kiosk
Ensemble.
Beridze, alongside Nika Machaidze teaches songwriting and music production at CES (creative education studio).
https://natalieberidzetba.bandcamp.com/
Carsten Nicolai / Alva Noto Biog
Under the pseudonym Alva Noto, Carsten Nicolai is one of the best-known representatives of contemporary electronic music. Concerts have taken him to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate Modern in London. His various musical projects include collaborations with Ryōji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, Iggy Pop, Blixa Bargeld and Ryūichi Sakamoto. With the latter, Nicolai composed the score for Alejandro González Iñárritu's Oscar-winning film The Revenant, which was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award and a Grammy.
Caro C Biog
Caro C is an artist, engineer and teacher specialising in electronic music. Her self-produced fourth album 'Electric Mountain' is out now. Described as a "one-woman electronic avalanche" (BBC), Caro started making music thanks to being laid up whilst living in a double decker bus and listening to the likes of Warp Records in the late 1990's. This 'sonic enchantress' (BBC Radio 3) has now played in most of the cultural hotspots of her current hometown of Manchester, UK. Caro is also the instigator and project manager of electronic music charity Delia Derbyshire Day.
Twitter: @carocsound
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