Ryuichi Sakamoto

Async MILAN, 2017

You say: “Could make a case for dozens of Ryuichi records, but I would make sure to include Async.” @msclairebiddles, via Twitter

His first solo album in eight years, this quiet masterpiece was written while recovering from a 2015 diagnosis of throat cancer and was described by Sakamoto himself as “an imaginary soundtrack to an Andrei Tarkovsky film”. Recorded in New York, and influenced by prime numbers, chaos and asynchrony, Async travels through prepared piano pieces to sweeping soundtrack romanticism, pop electronica, avant discord and minimalist digital decay. In many ways related to the highly recommended LPs of minimal electronica he’s recorded with German musician Alva Noto and Austrian experimental guitarist Christian Fennesz, but far more profoundly moving.