Ryuichi Sakamoto and the Modular Synth (Patreon)

On March 28, 2023, the Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away.

I was influenced by him and started studying electronics and playing music.

My modular synth activities have their roots in Ryuichi Sakamoto.

I would like to introduce the relationship between Ryuichi Sakamoto and modular synths.

1. Buchla

Sakamoto Ryuichi studied composition at Tokyo University of the Arts, the most difficult art university in Japan.

The university was equipped with the only Buchla modular synthesizer system in Japan at that time,

Ryuichi Sakamoto also learned synthesizing using the Buchla.

2. Moog system and Roland MC-8

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first album, "Thousand Knives," incorporated automatic performance using a Moog III-C and a Roland MC-8.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5Xlc7vhEeSDgZMtIRotReW?flow_id=8fe16ef2-405f-4e78-9fb5-f539b95fa7fa%3A1681857253 

The band he joined later, Yellow Magic Orchestra, also used modular synths on their early albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUn6V49PG00&t=36s 

The MC-8 was used for live performances, but there were some difficulties.

There were problems with the MC-8 that caused the sequence to stop, and there were also problems with the sequence for one song ending at the same time as the song started.

In addition, it takes several minutes for the MC-8 to load performance data,

One of the two songs was used for loading time of the performance data.

3. Eurorack

In the 2010s, Ryuichi Sakamoto introduced Eurorack to his compositions.

Experimental synthesizers such as EMS synthi A are also used.

https://www.netflix.com/jp/title/81299295