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While all of the songs on Playing the Piano were originally written on the piano ÐÐ these comprise reworkings of Sakamoto's familiar themes from Merry Christmas, The Sheltering Sky and The Last Emperor as well as selections from his YMO and solo-album repertoire ÐÐ the Out of Noise material was electronically originated, making their re-interpretation a little more difficult.

ÒThe first group was pretty easy to do,Ó he says, Òbecause I wrote those pieces on the piano, so it was kind of going back to the very seed of the creations. And this other group was a bit hard, because I had to re-arrange electronic music for the piano.Ó

The last couple of years have found Sakamoto touring Japan and Europe with his new piano performances, often in collaboration with electronic musicians Alva Noto and Christian Fennesz. Recently he brought his rather Olympian undertaking to North American stages, in a format in which the varied strands of his music have been arranged for piano duet ÐÐ so to speak. In fact, the concerts are performed via two pianos, one played by Sakamoto himself, and a second one that interacts with SakamotoÕs playing via MIDI controller, creating the effect of a piano duo.

Thus, Sakamoto has now played for the thousandth time his signature music for Mr. Christmas Mr. Lawrence, among many familiar themes that heÕs re-recorded many times as well. ItÕs one of his typically non-saccarhine slices of loveliness whose charms never seem to fade, and that perhaps owes to the pieceÕs deceptively simple design. Its graceful allure has deepened over the years.

ÒWell, I get older, and the pacing gets slower, yes,Ó he says with a laugh. ÒThatÕs what I want to express. I want to listen to the tones of the piano, in each harmony. I want to listen more, and I want to focus on the resonance of every note.Ó

For Sakamoto, making music now, particularly on the acoustic piano, is less and less about note-spinning and far more about the new worlds between the notes, where the notes go when they decay into silence. This is heard to chillingly beautiful effect on the Out of Noise half of the new album. The setÕs acoustic piano/digital effects/ambient sounds concept germinated when heÕd prepared a batch of piano improvisations for Alva Noto to electronically manipulate for an album project together.

ÒI played one note or one harmony,Ó he says, Òand then I waited until he responded to the harmonies; then I waited ÐÐ plenty of silence ÐÐ then hit another note or harmony. He would then again manipulate or control each note or harmony. By doing that I was discovering, or looking to find, the boundary between sound and noise.

ÒBut,Ó he says with a grin, ÒitÕs almost impossible to find. When the piano sound is ringing, itÕs disappearing into noise, and you cannot define the separation line.Ó

SakamotoÕs rich harmonic language owes a great deal to Claude Debussy, wielding an expansive and vividly colored palette in which, interestingly, Sakamoto discovered key elements that connected the French composer with SakamotoÕs other early inspiration, the Beatles.

ÒWhen I was 14,Ó he says, ÒI went to my uncleÕs room; he was a very big vinyl collector, and I just by chance saw a record by the Budapest String Quartet of DebussyÕs String Quartet coupled with RavelÕs String Quartet. I listened to it, and it was different from anything I had known at that time ­­ÐÐ different from Bach or Beethoven, Mozart. I didnÕt know the name of the harmony I was listening to, and there was a very strange scale that he was using on top of that, G-minor with A-flat. Totally strange.Ó

In his studies at music school years later, Sakamoto cracked the code. ÒI found that both Debussy and the Beatles used a lot of 9^th harmonies,. I donÕt know if the members of the Beatles were very conscious about that, but maybe George Martin put some of that in their music. I was drawn to such moments of the harmony, like `Please Mr. Postman,Õ the way the harmony comes out was very, very charming to me. I was drawn to that special moment.Ó

ItÕs special moments somewhat like these that characterize SakamotoÕs wildly varied compositions, moments that emanate from a sensibility capable of combining ultra-romantic and musically modernistic aims, generated in large part via nuance. ThatÕs something Sakamoto learned even more about from his experience playing the music of Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

ÒJobim had a very stong uniqueness of harmony,Ó he says. ÒItÕs very small details, and he makes small differences that make the music different. But listening and playing are very different things. To play JobimÕs music, you get much closer to him.Ó

The albumÕs fascinating interface of piano, found sounds and digital processing suggests a kind of reunion between the human and alien, the organic and inorganic, the ancient and the future. Sakamoto brings all these together with exquisite form in a track like ÒTama," within which one hears a crystalline, stringlike sound, which is actually a mixture of an old Japanese reed instrument called Sho, along with a percussive thock! derived from striking a piece of charcoal.

SakamotoÕs solo piano playing now emanates an enormous patience and focus. He credits that to time itself.

ÒAs I get older,Ó he says, ÒI want to hear more detail in music. I want to hear music deeply, in a meditative way, because IÕm getting close to death.Ó He laughs. ÒMusicÕs not only the designs of sounds, or its patterns, but to convey something. Something you cannot express with words.Ó

Ryuichi Sakamoto is clearly articulate when he discusses his concerns for the future of life on Earth. Sakamoto has long been a highly vocal activist concerned with militarism, nuclear proliferation, economic exploitation of the Third World, the environment, geopolitical issues and intellectual-property rights. These efforts as well as his eco-friendly touring plan were honored with the Echo Award for The Most Innovative Musician and Musical Tour 2009 at the United Nations Environment Programmes Echo Festival in conjunction with World Environment Day at the Royal Park in Brussels.

Sakamoto planned his recent tour of the U.S. to be as green as humanly possible, and for each stop on the tour, he has purchased carbon credits. He explains:

ÒBasically, anything we do will emit CO2, and when touring in America, thereÕs even more. So we calculate the emission by this tour, and we can buy CO2 absorption, also called credits, to compensate. There are many sources where you can compensate ÐÐ by solar panel, or other alternative energy sources.Ó

Sakamoto is spearheading a program that aims to compensate for these human carbon emissions in a major way: by planting trees. His moreTrees foundation has a lease on two forests in mainland Japan, and a third on the island of Hokkaido. The foundation oversees the planting of seedlings and maintaining the forests, and offers carbon offset credits to corporations and individuals looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

ÒThe major absorption sources of CO2 are C and 2; we cannot totally eliminate these elements, of course, but we can plant trees and make more forests,Ó he says. ÒWe founded moreTrees (www.more-trees.org) three years ago, and weÕre working in several different areas of the planet, and working in different ways. For example, Japan has a lot of forests, but they are not planted by humans, they are just left over, the small remains of what used to cover a much larger area in Japan, and JapanÕs forestry has been very, very weak. WeÕve got several forests in Japan, but there were thousands of forests in Japan, so the goal is very far.

ÒBut we do what we can do. If we maintain the forests and they get healthier, weÕre actually doing something substantial to encourage CO2 absorption. For this, we get money from the cities where weÕre doing the reforesting or maintenance, or corporations or individuals, to hire people to maintain the forests and to oversee the process.Ó

In three years of work, moreTrees has planted or replanted seven forests; currently it is planning another in the Philippines.

ÒThey have a different issue,Ó he says. ÒWhere countries like Japan have to maintain the forests that remain, in the Philippines the problem is deforestation ÐÐ they are the rain forest ÐÐ so we have to plant from scratch.Ó

Other planting destinations include Vietnam, a country whose wartime devastation has significantly weakened its bio-life. SakamotoÕs foundation is researching the optimum place to plant in Vietnam; there are a number of areas in the country that need it ÐÐ the soil itself remains heavily polluted by Agent Orange and napalm ÐÐ but the planting of certain types of vegetation will replenish the soil.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is not in the habit of seeding his politics onto his music, which, like his politics, remains probing and vital ÐÐ and ever more relevant.

ÒIÕm still just a musician,Ó he says. ÒThe reason IÕm active in environmental issues is, IÕve enjoyed my life so much, so IÕm okay. But I love my children, and I donÕt want them to live in a harsh environment. For myself, I want to drink safe water, I want to eat safe and delicious food, and I want to breathe clean air. IÕm doing this for myself and my family.

ÒWe have to do what we can do for the next generation, and other generations to come.Ó

Beauty and the Beholder: Ryuichi Sakamoto in Bluefat Archive