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Ryuichi Sakamoto: Chasm Chasm, the fifteenth solo release (and first in seven years) from Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder and soundtrack composer (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Empero) Ryuichi Sakamoto, is a stylistically eclectic collection featuring an equally diverse guest list (Arto Lindsay, David Sylvian, Sketch Show aka former Yellow Magic Orchestra collaborators Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryoji Ikeda). Apparently Sakamoto had hoped to conflate his panoply of styles into one but the music collected here hardly realizes that goal. Still, what Chasm lacks in cohesiveness and unity, it makes up for in its impressively broad range. Ambient meditations recur most often, sometimes in a glitch-laden form (“Lamento,” “20 msec.”) that recalls Oval and Raster-Noton, at other times in a more peaceful style (the looping minimalism of “Break With” and the ten-minute “Only Love Can Conquer Hate”). With its merging of piano and 'audio bits' from Carsten Nicolai, one might expect “Ngo/bitmix” to echo the understated minimalism of Vrioon and Insen; instead, the song etches a Brazilian jazz feel with Portuguese lyrics voiced by Maucha Adnet. “Undercooled” confounds stylistically even more with its blend of mellow soul, Korean rap by MC.Sniper, and Chinese instrumentation (Cao Xue Jing's Erhu); interestingly, though the combination might seem unpromising on paper, what results sounds quite satisfying (minus Keigo Oyamada's strangulated electric guitar that is). Also exotic is the closer, “Seven Samurai-ending theme,” a lovely classical-flavoured setting that draws upon the ancient court music tradition of Japanese Gagaku and couples Sakamoto's elegant piano with the two-stringed Ehru and reed instrument Hichiriki. Like many, Sakamoto was affected powerfully by the World Trade Center attacks and evidence of that impact emerges in politically-themed material like “World Citizen” and “War & Peace”; however, the carnage wrought by terrorists seems to have only intensified his ideal—some might say naïve—hope for global peace. “War & Peace” overlays mellow minimalism with multiple speakers pondering questions like “Is war as old as gravity?” and “Are there animals that like peace and animals that like war?” “World Citizen,” an elegant electronic meditation featuring Sylvian's emotive vocalizing, is worth the album purchase alone (the song also receives a less endearing remix treatment augmented by Ryoji Ikeda's processing input). Oddly, Chasm is being promoted as a 'pop' release in some quarters but that's clearly a misnomer for an album of such broad scope. Yet, despite its diversity, on a quality level Chasm holds up well, the sole missteps the brittle Merzbow imitation “Coro” and some grimy hip-hop that more drags than lopes; omit them, however, and you're still left with close to seventy minutes of ambitious Sakamoto music-making.August 2005 |
