25/06/2025
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Hidariude no Yume (Left Handed Dream, 1981)
by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Listen: https://kabamerica.lnk.to/LeftHandedDream
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ”Left Handed Dream“ emerged from pure creative instinct. ”We created songs day by day,“ Sakamoto recalls. ”Not finished music, but starting with just a drum idea, then adding bass riffs, guitar riffs.“
The recording process was deliberately unstructured - 13 pieces were recorded, with only 10 making the final album. ”Whatever sounded interesting, we put it all in. We captured inspiration without hesitation. I wanted to move away from calculated music.“
In contrast to Sakamoto‘s previous album, ”B-2 Unit“, which had, as he described, ’descending energy‘, ”Left Handed Dream“ aimed for ’upward energy‘. Sakamoto embraced contradictions in his artistic identity: ”I couldn’t hide that I had a pop sensibility. Instead of rejecting it, I decided to let it flow naturally alongside my conceptual and free music tendencies.“
The album featured diverse collaborators: Robin Scott and King Crimson‘s guitarist Adrian Belew, Yukihiro Takahashi, percussionist Kiyohiko Semba (traditional Japanese music specialist), Robin Thompson (who studied with Stockhausen and played gagaku), and violinist Kaoru Sato from Kyoto’s new wave scene. This created a more ”organic“ sound compared to his previous electronic works.
Most remarkably, Sakamoto included a piece made from monkey sounds - a collaboration with Shigesato Itoi for a TV program. ”I‘m fascinated by whether monkeys have music,“ he explained. ”They express themselves through sounds, screeching and hitting things.“ The resulting collage, featuring ”rhythm-backing monkeys and melody monkeys,“ made it onto the album.
This represented Sakamoto using his ”brain as a tool“ - letting everything emerge rather than suppressing elements as he had done previously.
Full article available in Japanese:
https://www.snrec.jp/entry/2020/04/30/120000
Photo: ©MIDI Inc.
