I know him for his soundtracks, but recently I discovered that its was just the tip of the iceberg
RIP Ryūichi Sakamoto 
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I was very moved to see a number of posts on my instagram feed that mourned his passing – the most moving one was from a young chinese electronic music composer whose post was notable to me for how speechless he was to be so heartbroken. It reminded me of the way Robert Ashley’s passing hit me.
I remember, when Ashley died, watching myself mope about in an unexpectedly pitiful way and thinking of the title of that Les Rallizes Dénudés album ‘Heavier than a Death in the Family’, feeling both like I was being so hyperbolic about it, and yet still I just had this awful feeling inside of me.
I think, sometimes, as artists, we can adopt certain older artists as parents, or adopt contemporaries as a kind of sibling, sometimes without even realizing the extent to which we’ve done so.
And then their sudden passing hits like a shock, like the unexpected ending of a book that had centered us more than we let on, even to ourselves, and that, in retrospect, we had desperately wanted to keep reading.
I’m still a philistine to the full depth and breadth of Sakamoto’s work and impact, but seeing the responses to his passing reminded me strongly of that experience of my own. That he was very deeply loved like that.
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What was his name? I wonder if I heard of him
This was the album a friend of mine shared with me, that made me curious about him, I think it’s very good. Also goes by Kian.
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Oh, that’s a new name to me! Thanks!
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