Christian Fennesz-Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto Ryuichi Sakamoto: Award-winning composer and musician has made a career of crossing musical and technological boundaries. Sakamoto has experimented with, and excelled in, many different musical styles, making a name for himself in popular, orchestral and film music. Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, Sakamoto continues to push the envelope of his artistry, marrying genres, styles and technologies for the first time to create new and exciting directions in musical expression. Sakamoto's best-known work is probably the soundtrack of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which won him the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). His subsequent score for Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film The Last Emperor won him an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe, as well as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award and a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Score. In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album and formed Yellow Magic Orchestra along with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. YMO was immediately recognized as an international sensation from Japan. The group's second album sold well over a million copies and led to a world tour, making them, with Kraftwerk, the kings of technopop. Releasing eleven albums over the next five years, YMO developed a following that continues to the present day, and its influence on the rave, techno and ambient movements is widely recognized. For a full biography and discography, go to ryuichi-sakamoto.com Christian Fennesz Christian Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. "Imagine the electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language." - (City Newspaper, USA). His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, an inherent naturalism permeating each piece. His two latest studio albums, Venice [Touch, 2004] and Endless Summer [reissued on eMego, 2007] have set him apart from legions of glitch musicians working to a minimal, computer-based aesthetic. His next solo album will be released on Touch later in 2007. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.