''async'' is the nineteenth solo
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
of Japanese musician
Ryuichi Sakamoto
was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...
and his first one in eight years since ''Out of Noise'' (2009). It is also his first full-length solo record since recovering from
throat cancer
Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...
in 2015. Consisting of a combination of unusual interpretations of familiar musical instruments, textures both acoustic and electronically made, samples of recordings of people such as
David Sylvian
David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...
and
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
doing readings, and everyday sounds borrowed from
field recordings
Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using dif ...
of city streets, ''async'' has underlying themes of the worries of the end of life and the interaction of differing viewpoints in humanity.
Promoted with two art museum installations, a short film contest, and premiering via a listening event at
Big Ears Festival
The Big Ears Festival is an annual music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 2009, 2010 and 2014-2019 editions were produced by AC Entertainment. The festival incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2016 and has been independent ...
, ''async'' was first released in Japan by Sakamoto's label
Commmons in March 2017 before
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
distributed it to other nations in April 2017. It was critically acclaimed, landed in the top twenty of the
Japanese albums chart Japanese Albums Chart may refer to:
* Oricon Albums Chart
The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridg ...
and in the top five of ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
's American
Top Classical Albums
The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...
chart, and was ranked the best album of 2017 by ''
Fact
A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...
'' magazine. A
set of remixes of songs from ''async'', titled ''
ASYNC – REMODELS'', was released in December 2017.
Background
Since 2009, Ryuichi Sakamoto had an eight-year period
where he was unable to inspire himself in his composition process.
As a result, he focused most of his time on scoring films instead of producing solo material.
He started sketching ideas for a solo album in 2014, but they were scrapped
after he was diagnosed with
throat cancer
Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...
in 2014, after which he had to pause his career entirely.
[Hadfield, James (April 26, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto resists the prettier path on ‘async’ and comes out stronger"
''The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
History
''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
''. Retrieved March 31, 2018. Despite recovering from the disease in August 2015, Sakamoto thought ''async'' would be his last album: "That’s why I tried to forget all the rules and forms, anything. I just wanted to put down just what I wanted to hear, just a sound or music, it doesn’t matter. This could be the last time."
[Beta, Andy (June 12, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto interview"
Andy Beta Official Website. Retrieved March 31, 2018. He began making it entirely from scratch in April 2016,
which was after completing his soundtrack for the film ''
Rage
Rage may refer to:
* Rage (emotion), an intense form of anger
Games
* Rage (collectible card game), a collectible card game
* Rage (trick-taking card game), a commercial variant of the card game Oh Hell
* ''Rage'' (video game), a 2011 first- ...
'' (2016),
[Saxelby, Ruth (July 20, 2016)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto Debuts “Raindrops” From His Score For ''Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son''"
''The Fader
''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture.
History and work
It is owned by T ...
''. Retrieved March 30, 2018. and finished it in eight months.
The only track made before Sakamoto's cancer diagnosis that appears on ''async'' is "andata."
Sounds and underlying themes
Inspired by the minimal structures of the works of
Claude Debussy
Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
and the
free jazz
Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
stylings of
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
,
[Przybyslawski, Corinne (April 28, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto Survived Cancer and an Earthquake to Make His Most Personal Album to Date"
'' Thump''. Retrieved March 31, 2018. ''async'', as
Milan Records
Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan has an electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases.
In July 2 ...
summarized, is a set of representations of Sakamoto's thinking that "plays with ideas of a-synchronism,
prime numbers
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
,
chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Science, technology, and astronomy
* '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick
* Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company
* ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae
* ...
,
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
and the blurred lines of life and artificiality/noise and music."
["Ryuichi Sakamoto – async"](_blank)
Milan Records
Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan has an electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases.
In July 2 ...
Official Website. Retrieved March 30, 2018. Sakamoto conceived the album as the soundtrack for a nonexistent movie by
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
,
whose works mostly deal with mortality (see the Worries of death subsection of this article)
[Smith, Karl (April 27, 2017)]
"Karl Smith On Ryuichi Sakamoto's async"
''The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
''. Retrieved March 31, 2018. and employed walking scenes with the type of
Foley featured on ''async''.
When making ''async'', "I just wanted to hear sounds of things, everyday things, even the sounds of instruments, musical instruments as things," Sakamoto said.
Sakamoto cited the works of
sound art
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...
sculptor
Harry Bertoia
Harry Bertoia (March 10, 1915 – November 6, 1978) was an Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture furniture designer, designer.
Bertoia was born in San Lorenzo di Arzene, San Lorenzo d'Arzene, Province of Porden ...
as a major influence when making the album.
The instrumentation includes both regular orchestral instruments and unusual acoustic and programmed textures,
more specifically bizarre interpretations of otherwise familiar instruments and the "musical aspect
of everyday noise.
''async'' employs a variety of sound-producing techniques, such as
field recordings
Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using dif ...
, making mist textures out of chorales, and wailing sounds from glass.
[Weston, Hillary (June 1, 2017)]
"Sonic Memories: A Conversation with Ryuichi Sakamoto"
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...
. Retrieved March 31, 2018. Some of the tracks include out-of-tune pianos; he recorded two
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...
pianos he had in his home studio,
and a piano that was drowned in tsunami water was used on the track "Zure." He thought it was "nature" that was responsible for the notes the broken pianos played: "the piano is a very systematically, industrially-designed thing, but they were a part of nature, taken from nature. Mankind artificially tuned and set the well-tempered scale, but the thing is if you leave the piano for a long time without a tuning, it will be out of tune."
"Tri" is an unedited recording of
triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
s performed by three musicians:
[Saxelby, Ruth (May 5, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto Is Listening Closer Than Ever"
''The Fader''. Retrieved March 30, 2018. Ian Antonio, Levy Lorenzo, and Ross Karre.
In a 2017 conversation with Sakamoto, Ruth Saxelby assumed the triangle sounds that were in the later part of the track were digitally programmed.
However, Sakamoto corrected Saxelby by saying "Tri" went through more than ten takes because the three musicians were "perfectionists" and thus wanted the triangles to sound machine-like.
Asynchronization and human duality
As Sakamoto described the album's main idea, Sakamoto said it was
human nature
Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...
most people "find pleasure in being in sync. That's why I wanted to create untraditional music that doesn't synchronize
because it's likespeaking in a language that doesn't exist." He wanted to make a record like this for a long time, but it was difficult to do because he "wanted to make something async but still musical."
According to Sakamoto, his musical interests were moving towards "sound and music" rather than just "music" while producing the album, and thus he incorporated field recordings to capture "lots of strange sounds."
Sakamoto did the field recordings by walking through streets in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
,
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
with a cell phone microphone in his hand,
activity that made up for four months of the album's production.
The sounds he captured were those all people unavoidably encounter in everyday life, such as street noise, animal sounds, leaves, water, and rain.
Composing the score for ''
The Revenant'' (2015), a film very heavy on themes about nature in both its story and music, influenced how Sakamoto produced ''async''.
[Coultate, Aaron (May 3, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto: Everyday objects"
''Resident Advisor''. Retrieved April 1, 2018. For "Walker," Sakamoto spent around ten to fifteen minutes recording his footsteps while walking in a forest filled with leaves, which makes up most of the track.
It was a forest that surrounded
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...
's
Glass House
Glass house or glass houses may refer to:
Architecture
* Greenhouse, a building where plants are cultivated
* Glass works or glasshouse, a manufactory building used for glassblowing
* Glasshouse (British Army), a term for a military prison in the ...
, which Sakamoto later used to record the improvisational piece "
Glass
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
" with
Alva Noto
Carsten Nicolai (born 18 September 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz) is a German artist, musician and label owner. As a musician he is known under the pseudonym Alva Noto.
Life and career
Carsten Nicolai was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Ch ...
.
On ''async'', all of its sounds come together but never create a proper harmony. However, Sakamoto described these sounds as "significant in their own way because their "existence has meaning." He explained, "As human beings, we
..take the liberty to decide which sound is good or bad.
..I'm suggesting we open our ears and listen to each sound without prejudice." Sakamoto did this to symbolize as well as commentate on how the differing viewpoints of humanity worked: "In this world of myriad viewpoints and unlimited information, every single person is choosing only the information that he or she is interested in, and people with similar interests gather and form a group. Then, groups with similar interests exchange views with one another, accelerating the movement to narrow the conversation down to ever-more specific views bound by a particular concern. And so, groups with different interests barely communicate with each other, or even if they do, they tend to dismiss the views of the other." The message of ''async'' is that, like dissonant sounds coming together to create music, humans of all different viewpoints should come together and respect each other.
This theme of ''async'' was compared by writer Karl Smith to the works of
Shane Carruth
Shane Carruth (born 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, composer, and actor. He is the writer, director, and co-star of the prize-winning science-fiction film ''Primer'' (2004), which was his debut feature. His second film, '' Upstream ...
, whose films also deal with chaos in human nature.
He used "Zure"'s mixture of "intangible synthetic panes with the more earthly, percussive tones of the piano" and "Walker"'s combination of noises with a "
call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
fgentle swells and vibrations" as examples of the record's use of juxtapositions, which present "the idea that any one thing is more than just that one thing."
While a majority of ''async'' consists of subdued pieces, the album also contains more dissonant tracks like "Tri,"
"disintegration," which places awkwardly-tuned piano plucks aside warm synthesizer pads,
and the title track, which includes harshly plucked pizzicato strings.
This is to symbolize a "never ending pendulum swing between solace and chaos," ''
Paste
Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to:
Science and technology
* Adhesive or paste
** Wallpaper paste
** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water
* Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...
'' magazine stated.
Worries of death
Some critics noted Sakamoto's worries about death seeping into the album,
which were influenced not only by his experience with cancer but also the many earthquakes and tsunamis that occurred in Japan in 2011.
He said in an interview, "We were warned about how our civilization is fragile and how the force of nature is great."
David Sylvian
David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...
, who reads a poem by
Arseny Tarkovsky
Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director and screenwriter Andrei Tarkovsky.
Biography
Family
Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisav ...
on the song "Life, Life"
over pizzicato strings, synthesizers, and a
shō,
said ''async'' "expresses a love and gratitude for life accompanied by the knowledge of its fragility."
On "Life, Life," Sylvian reads, "To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world / Wave follows wave to break on the shore, / On each wave is a star, a person, a bird, / Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave."
The recording was done in 2011 and was one of ten poem readings Sylvian submitted to Sakamoto for a charity concert supporting victims of the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
.
"Fullmoon" begins with a quote from
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
reading his novel ''
The Sheltering Sky
''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles.
Plot
The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'' (1949) over a
sine wave
A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic function, periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric function, trigonometric sine, sine function. In mechanics, as a linear motion over time, this is ''simple ...
:
[Beaudoin, Sean (June 18, 2017)]
"Life, Life: async and the Legacy of Ryuichi Sakamoto"
''Lotus Land''. Retrieved March 31, 2018. "We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really."
[Beta, Andy (April 21, 2017)]
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Retrieved March 30, 2018. He also says on the song, "Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless."
The later part of the song depicts Bowles' quote being spoken in other languages by Sakamoto's friends
over an instrumental of piano and synthesizers.
The recording of Bowles saying the quote also appears in the end of the
1990 film adaptation of the book, which Sakamoto composed the score for.
Sakamoto explained the sample "struck me so much" when he first listened to it, reasoning that it was "so heavy and serious about life and death, and that excerpt
lays in the filmright after the husband dies in the middle of the
Sahara
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...
, in the middle of nowhere."
He used the recording for Bowles' voice, as it "sounds something very profound to me: it's not too dark, it's very light; it doesn't sound too serious."
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci ( ; ; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved inte ...
, who wrote and directed the film adaptation, speaks the Italian version of the quote on the track.
Release
''async'' premiered via a listening event at
Big Ears Festival
The Big Ears Festival is an annual music festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 2009, 2010 and 2014-2019 editions were produced by AC Entertainment. The festival incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2016 and has been independent ...
that ran from March 23 to 26, 2017, where the album was presented in
5.1 surround sound
5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full-bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dolb ...
.
Commmons first released ''async'' in Japan on
CD and in
digital stores on March 29, 2017.
["坂本龍一「async」"](_blank)
(in Japanese). iTunes Store Japan. Retrieved March 29, 2018. The vinyl version of the album was also initially planned to come out in the country the same day, but due to sound quality issues was postponed to May 17.
["坂本龍一 8年ぶりのオリジナルアルバム発売配信(ハイレゾ含む)も同日スタート!!"](_blank)
(in Japanese). Commmons Official Website. Retrieved March 29, 2018. ''
Thump'' premiered ''async'' worldwide via
streaming
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
on April 24, 2017, before
Milan Records
Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan has an electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases.
In July 2 ...
issued it to other formats on April 28, 2017.
[Przybyslawski, Corinne (April 24, 2017)]
"Stream Japanese Electronic Pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto's First Album in Eight Years"
''Thump''. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
Promotion
From April 4 to May 28, 2017, the
Watari Museum of Contemporary Art ran an exhibition titled ''async'', which consists of visuals by artists
Shiro Takatani (who was also responsible for the cover art of the album),
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (; ; , born 16 July 1970) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong h ...
, Neo Sora and Albert "Zakkubalan" Tholen performed over cuts from the album.
[L. Tran, John (May 2, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto provides a soundtrack to life at ‘async’ exhibition"
''The Japan Times''. Retrieved April 1, 2018. The exhibition's moving visuals consisted of distorted footage of a crowd of people and Sakamoto's home and studio.
A follow-up to the installation, titled ''IS YOUR TIME'', ran from December 9, 2017, to March 11, 2018, at
NTT InterCommunication Center
NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) is a media art gallery in Tokyo Opera City Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Jap ...
, and also featured music from ''async'' and visuals by Takatani.
The first live performance of ''async'' in the United States was held in the Veterans Room at the
Seventh Regiment Armory
The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic Armory (military), armory for the National Guard (United States), U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, Uni ...
on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on April 26, 2017. A
concert film
A concert film or concert movie is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert, by either a musician or a Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian.
Ea ...
of the performance titled ''Ryuichi Sakamoto PERFORMANCE IN NEW YORK: async'' premiered in Japanese theaters on January 27, 2018. From August 4 until September 30, 2017, submissions were open for a contest ran by Sakamoto and Weerasethakul titled the async Short Film Competition, where filmmakers had to produce a film using music from ''async''. From the approximately 800 entries that were submitted, ''In a Happy Place'' by
Sikkim
Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...
-based filmmaker Sandup Lepcha won the contest, receiving $3,000 and an opportunity to have Sakamoto compose for his next film.
Critical reception
''async'' garnered very positive reviews from
writers
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short stori ...
upon its release.
''
Mixmag
''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights.
History
The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...
'' gave ''async'' a ten-out-of-ten review, describing it as "full of church organs, hazy reverb, rippling synths and poetry about mortality and eternity, as well as Sakamoto’s distinctive piano, sonar bleeps and unforgettable melodies. It’s arguably the most beautiful record you’ll hear this year."
''Lotus Land'' praised ''async'' as "yet another entry in his oeuvre which simultaneously feels unique from his other releases and yet inescapably Sakamoto in its depth and emotion."
Kevin Press of ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
'' called it "challenging and moving," highlighting its "unique ability to create genuine beauty with a varied — at times abrasive — palette" and the fact that Sakamoto "remains a radical after all these years."
As Paul Bowler summarized ''async'', "Understandably ruminative in nature, it’s a renewed sense of creative vigour which provides the driving force on a piece of work which stands among the composer’s best."
Avant-garde music magazine ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'' claimed, "its coherence of tonality and timbre gives it the feel of an imaginary soundtrack and yet each track has its own internal logic and direction which means that it never sounds like a grab-bag of musical supervisor’s cues but like a proper album of songs."
Journalist Andy Beta analyzed the album has a "warmth and fragility" that sets it apart from most
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
records.
Andrew Ryce praised it for feeling "universal," where "anyone can pick up the objects around them and make music, and Sakamoto shows how engaging even the simplest exercises in sound can be."
''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
''
's Sean O'Neal wrote that when hearing all the songs in order, they "creat
a transcendent introspective mood that allows the listener to hear their own story within them," but when the songs are heard separately, they "can be a bit boring."
Some critics spotlighted the use of elements of Sakamoto's previous works,
Ryce calling them the best parts of ''async''.
''Spectrum Culture'' compared it to the composer's earlier albums in that "it sacrifices coherency and consistency in getting as many of its creator’s ideas on wax as possible. Some of the ideas here are great, some are bad, most are interesting."
[Bromfield, Daniel (May 15, 2017)]
"Ryuichi Sakamoto: async"
''Spectrum Culture''. Retrieved March 29, 2018. The spoken word pieces garnered mixed opinions.
Some found them to be the album's weakest tracks,
finding them showy ways of presenting themes the album's other tracks did more effectively,
James Hadfield of ''
The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
History
''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
'' opined "the vocals sit uncomfortably in the mix."
However, Beta called them "striking inclusion
"
''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
'' critic Chris Ingalls felt they added "more layers of sonic curiosities,"
and Bowler described them as the album's "most oddly affecting" moments.
Accolades
Track listing
;Sample credits
*"Fullmoon" features a sample of a recording by
Recorded Picture Company
Recorded Picture Company is a British film production company founded in 1974 by producer Jeremy Thomas.
History
Recorded Picture Company (RPC) is an independent production company that makes feature films for worldwide theatrical release. J ...
of
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
reading ''
The Sheltering Sky
''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles.
Plot
The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...
'' (1949).
*"Life, Life" features the poem "And this I dreamt, and this I dream" from
Arseny Tarkovsky
Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director and screenwriter Andrei Tarkovsky.
Biography
Family
Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisav ...
's ''Life, Life'' (2010)
Personnel
Derived from the liner notes of ''async''.
*Composed and produced by
Ryuichi Sakamoto
was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...
*Administration and assistant production by Mai Yuda
*Associate production by Norika Sora
*Production managed by Alec Fellman
*Assistant engineering by Jason Staniulis, Matthew Sim, and Alec Fellman
*Recorded by Alex Venguer, Ryan Kelly, and Seigen Ono
*Piano technician work by Kaz Tsujio
*Recorded and mixed by Conrad Hensel at Germano Studios in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
*Mastered by
Bob Ludwig
Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...
at Gateway Mastering in
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
*Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon
*Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine
*Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel
Portland may also r ...
,
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
*"Walker" and "Water State 2" recorded at the
Museum of Arts and Design
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...
in New York City
*"Life, Life," "Honj," and "Water State 2" recorded at
Kyoto City University of Arts
(/Kyoto Univ. of Arts). The official abbreviated name is Kyōgei. is a public, municipal university of general art and music in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1880, it is Japan's oldest university of the arts (the predecessor of Tokyo Universi ...
*Also recorded at The Studio in New York City and
Bastyr University
Bastyr University is a private alternative medicine university with campuses in Kenmore, Washington, and San Diego, California. Programs include naturopathy, acupuncture, Traditional Asian medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, ayurvedic medic ...
Chapel
*Guitar and computer on "Andata" by
Christian Fennesz
Christian Fennesz (born 25 December 1962) is an Austrian producer and guitarist active in electronic music since the 1990s, often credited mononymously as Fennesz. His work utilizes guitar and laptop computers to blend melody with treated samp ...
*
Singing bowls
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...
on "Fullmoon" by N.S.S.
*Spoken word vocals on "Fullmoon" performed by Andri Magnason,
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci ( ; ; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved inte ...
,
Carsten Nicolai
Carsten Nicolai (born 18 September 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz) is a German artist, musician and label owner. As a musician he is known under the pseudonym Alva Noto.
Life and career
Carsten Nicolai was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Ch ...
, Christine Leboutte,
José Lavat
José Francisco Lavat Pacheco (September 23, 1948 – May 15, 2018), better known as José Lavat, was a Mexican voice actor.
Lavat was the brother of Jorge Lavat and Queta Lavat, both actors.
Filmography Animated films
Animated TV shows
*'' ...
, Keyko Nimsay, Priscilla Leung Siu-wai, Sergei Mihailov,
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat (; born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininit ...
, and Tang Kit Ming
*Words on "Fullmoon" by
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
*Triangle on "Tri" by Ian Antonio, Levy Lorenzo, and Ross Karre
*
Shō on "Life, Life" and "Water State 2" by
Ko Ishikawa
is a Bolivian-Japanese former Association football, footballer. He used his name "石川 康" until 2001.
Club career
Ishikawa established himself as one of the most unflappable defenders in the league as a side back at Tokyo Verdy, Verdy Kawasa ...
*Vocals on "Life, Life" by Luca
*Spoken word vocals on "Life, Life" by
David Sylvian
David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...
*Words on "Life, Life" by
Arseny Tarkovsky
Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director and screenwriter Andrei Tarkovsky.
Biography
Family
Tarkovsky was born on 25 June N.S. 1907 in Yelisav ...
*
Shamisen
The , also known as or
(all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi.
The Japanese pronunciation is usually b ...
on "Honj" by Honjoh Hidejiro
*"Garden" recorded by
Northwest Sinfonia
The Northwest Sinfonia is a session symphonic orchestra based in Seattle, mostly renowned for recording soundtracks to motion pictures and computer games. It was founded in 1995 and is credited with over 100 recordings.
It draws its members mostl ...
*Concertmaster on "Garden" by Simon James
*Contractor on "Garden" by David Sabee
*Engineering on "Garden" by Conrad Hensel and John Winters
*
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
engineering on "Garden" by Kory Kruckenberg
*Stage Management on "Garden" by Jon Schluckebier
*Artwork directed and photographed by
Shiro Takatani
*Artwork produced by Yoko Takatani
Release history
Charts
Remix album
On December 13, 2017, Commons released ''
ASYNC – REMODELS'', a collection of remixes of tracks from ''async'' by musicians such as
Oneohtrix Point Never
Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American Experimental music, experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer, and songwriter. His music has utilized wikt:trope, tropes from various ...
,
Johann Johannsson
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
, and
Arca. The album landed at number 15 on ''Billboard''
's United States Classical Albums chart.
Legacy
A reinterpretation of async, "async - immersion 2023" was released on February 2, 2024. This project, a collaboration with
Shiro Takatani, was initially presented as a site-specific installation in the basement of the Kyoto Shimbun Building. The release aims to replicate the auditory experience of the 'async - immersion 2023' exhibit showcased at AMBIENT KYOTO. Designed to be experienced asynchronously, the project diverges from traditional synchronization of sound and image reflecting Sakamoto's in an immersive experience.
References
{{Authority control
2017 albums
Ryuichi Sakamoto albums
Ambient albums by Japanese artists
Electronic albums by Japanese artists
Experimental music albums by Japanese artists