Ryuichi Sakamoto Details ‘Gigantic’ Score to ‘Birdman’ Director’s ‘The Revenant’
Following four Oscars for Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) — and wide acclaim for its kinetic jazz score — director Alejandro González Iñárritu has tapped veteran composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and electronic craftsman Alva Noto to helm music for his highly anticipated follow-up, The Revenant.
Sakamoto is a veteran of film scoring — his soundtrack for 1983’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a pioneering work of analog synth, and he nabbed an Academy Award for 1987’s The Last Emperor. However, The Revenant reunites him with electronic musician Carsten “Alva Noto” Nicolai, reigniting one of the most fruitful partnerships in his long, prolific career. Together, between 2002 and 2011, Sakamoto and Nicolai made five discs of contemporary ambient music’s most intriguing tapestries: tender piano improv processed into brittle, gorgeous glitchwork. The Revenant finds them working separately, together and layered alongside chiming modern minimalist Bryce Dessner of the National. Penning music for the western thriller also marks one of Sakamoto’s first projects since being sidelined with throat cancer, ending his first and only creative hiatus in a career that dates back to dance pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978.
Rolling Stone met with Sakamoto in his synth-lined New York studio to discuss bouncing back and creating the intense score — which is already up for a Golden Globe.
You were sidelined for a couple of years.
Yeah, I was diagnosed last June. So, I decided to cancel all the projects. Everything. I couldn’t cancel just a few here, but still doing this. So I canceled everything. … I had plenty of time not doing anything, maybe since I was early-20s or something, when I was a student. First time in 40 years. … Of course, treatment was the most important thing and I had the most harsh, physically painful time in my life. I almost couldn’t eat, or I almost couldn’t swallow my own saliva.
What was causing that in the treatment?
It was kind of a side effect. Is it really side? It’s the effect. It broke the cancer cells. Of course the healthy cells got a really huge reaction obviously.
When did you get the diagnosis that you were cancer free?
Um. Well. That’s the thing. Right now I’m good. I feel better. Much, much better. I feel energy inside, but you never know. The cancer might come back in three years, five years, maybe 10 years. Also the radiation makes your immune system really low. It means I’m very welcoming [of] another cancer in my body. So I have to be very careful. I’m reinforcing my immune system right now. Special diet, lots of supplements and yoga, exercise.
What did you do with all this spare time you had?
Every person has something in their minds: “This book, I wanted to read this book for 40 years but I couldn’t find the time.” So, now it the right time to do it. Old movies, or whatever. Or music also. I had never really liked the music by Gabriel Fauré, but just by chance listening to some pieces by him, I got very interested. So I listened to almost everything. All the pieces written by him. I was digging deeper and deeper. I’m not sure I still like his music or not, but it’s interesting.