sakamoto tours europe

Legendary composer, performer and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto is touring Europe for the first time in many years. As a founding member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (considered to be the Asian counterpart to Kraftwerk), founded in 1978, Ryuichi Sakamoto, born in Tokyo in 1952, is one of the pioneers of electronic pop music. Sakamoto's best-known solo work is probably the soundtrack to "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", but his 1987 score for Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" won him an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, as well as the New York, Los Angeles and British Film Critics Association awards for best original soundtrack. Since then, he has worked with Bertolucci ("The Sheltering Sky", "Little Buddha"), Oliver Stone ("Wild Palms"), Pedro Almodovar ("High Heels"), and Brian De Palma ("Snake Eyes", "Femme Fatale"). He has collaborated with a huge variety of other musicians including David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Brian Wilson and Youssou N’Dour.

Watch his "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" perfromance here (and the movie verison here: "Forbidden Colors" with David Sylvain, featuring scenes from the same named film, featuring the composer himself and David Bowie):

Watch him perform "Rain" live here (Trivia: he appeared in Madonna's "Rain" music video).

Watch him perform the jazzy "Tong Poo" here.

Here are the tour dates for Germany:

Oct 07 - Wed Hau 1 (Berlin/Germany)
Oct 09 - Fri Tonhalle (Düsseldorf/Germany)
Oct 11 - Sun Central Theatre (Leipzig/Germany)
Oct 15 - Thu Enjoy Jazz Festival (Heidelberg/Germany)

For more dates in Europe check his website.

source1 and poster source, source2