Music Sets You Free

‘Sakamoto was such a genius, and such a delight to collaborate with — and now this unexpected chance to come know him so much more closely. I’d recommend this book to anyone, and most especially to those not yet familiar with his work’ William Gibson, author of Neuromancer
‘An elegant and timeless artist’ Johnny Marr, co-creator and lead guitarist of The Smiths
‘After listening to the soundtrack of Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky, drawn by its delicacy, elegance and passion, I knew I wanted to work with its composer. We greatly enjoyed working together. Ryuichi’s versatility was endless. I never imagined a Japanese composer would blend so seamlessly with Bossa Nova like he did with Jacques Morelenbaum. His sensitivity knew no boundaries, as Music Sets You Free beautifully demonstrates’ Pedro Almodóvar
‘A precious, candidly intimate and exhaustive dive into the world of the virtuoso himself, who yet again cements his legacy and reminds us that “art is long, life is short”’ Anu Ambasna, DJ & broadcaster
‘Ryuichi Sakamoto did more than just put Japanese pop music on the map; the aural bridges he built between Far East and West transformed the way the world listens to music. This memoir is as poetic and wide-ranging as his career, as catchy and moving as one of his songs. It’s required reading both for Sakamoto fans and for scholars of pop music’ Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World
‘This magical book rescues him from the stale terminus of celebrity and delivers him back to the rich soil of the human’ Sasha Frere-Jones, writer, musician and music critic
‘Reading Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Music Sets You Free, I am struck by his wish to become a star in the night sky when he died. This wish is fulfilled many times over through this autobiography and his music, which he left to humanity’ Marina Abramović, artist and performer
‘What a privilege to see the boy become a man and the student a master!’ Laurie Anderson, musician, artist and filmmaker

Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) lived many musical lives over his 71 years. As a keyboardist and songwriter in Haruomi Hosono’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped set the stage for synthpop. His solo experiments in fusing global genres and close studies of classical impressionism led to him scoring over 30 films in as many years, including Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky, and Alejandro González Inárritu’s The Revenant. He also wrote a multimedia opera, turned a glass building into an instrument, and travelled to the Arctic to record the sound of melting snow. ‘Music, work, and life all have a beginning and an ending,’ said Sakamoto in early 2019. ‘What I want to make now is music freed from the constraints of time.’

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