Recorded in Tokyo last month, the concert by Ryuichi Sakamoto, titled Playing the Piano for the Isolated, has been uploaded to YouTube in hopes to delight listeners in quarantine with select pieces from Sakamoto’s expansive career.
Approximately an hour and 40 minutes, the concert spotlighted “Andata,” a slow, wistful piano composition from his most recent album async. Next, he was joined on stage by Hidejiro Honjoh, who along with Sakamoto’s piano played on his shamisen. The musicians then spoke briefly about the origins of the shamisen, which according to the two, seemed to crossover from China to Okinawa. After that, a series of abstract improvisation went along, finally wrapping the concert up with the last piece by Sakamoto “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” the score to the 1983 war drama of the same name.
You can listen to the full Playing the Piano for the Isolated concert by Ryuichi Sakamoto on his official YouTube channel below.