Ryuichi Sakamoto. In Memoriam

Many websites report the death of the renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍) (1952-2023). He was a very influential pioneer of electronic music first as a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra and later on in his solo works. He was also a celebrated film composer, having worked with film directors like Nagisa Oshima, Bernardo Bertolucci (he won the Oscar for his composition for The Last Emperor, but he also created the sublime soundtrack of The Sheltering Sky), Pedro Almodóvar, Volker Schlöndorff,  Brian de Palma or Alejandro González Iñárritu). 

In 1992, he composed one of his most famous works: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the film by Peter Kosminski with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. He always seemed very pleased with this soundtrack as it was featured in many of his concerts and even, in his final streamed live appearance (in December of 2022) he performed a piano version of the main theme. 

Already in 1996, he included a trio version (piano, violin and cello) in the setlist of his Ryuichi Sakamoto Trio World Tour 1996: