Ryuichi Sakamoto 坂本龍一* – 左うでの夢 - Hidari Ude No Yume - Left Handed Dream

I remember when Ryuichi Sakamoto died. I had this overwhelming sadness that the world had lost a great. One in a generation kind of artist - artistic genius in his own lane. It was a similar weight to when Bowie died, although I had been a long time fan of Bowie. I was surprised by my reaction actually. I could understand why I was so sad about Bowie but confused by this. On reflection, I had spent the year prior to his death going back and listening to a lot of his work and perhaps the sadness was also I had not appreciated the gravity of his work earlier.

I don’t remember exactly when I bought this, relatively soon when it was re released – so 2020/2021? I remember buying it in my vinyl Christmas money haul. I wanted to explore some early 80's solo Sakamoto. Originally released in 1981, this is the first time it’s been repressed and available outside Japan (minus a small repress in the Netherlands I think? for a tour?). Produced by British producer Robin Scott, each track was built around the drums, with layers of instrumentation from guest features, resulting in a lush new wave, experimental sounding record – think Kraftwerk / Eno. Some of the lyrics were written by Sakamoto’s then wife Akiko Yano. This comes in two version, with vocal and one that includes a second disc of instrumentals. If it’d known at the time I would have got the one with the bonus disc as the music alone is a standout – minus the final track with the creepy animal noises.

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