坂本龍一

Sakamoto Ryuichi

Exhibition

1952 — 2023

音と音の間にある
静寂こそが
音楽である

The silence between sounds
is itself
the music

"I want to see how sounds behave in a room,
not in a performance but as an installation.
Sound should fill space like water."

— Ryuichi Sakamoto
async 2017

A sound installation for one listener. Decaying piano tones recorded in empty rooms. Field recordings of rain, wind, static. Each sound exists independently — asynchronous — refusing to resolve into harmony.

The album was composed after his cancer diagnosis. Every note carries the weight of impermanence. Wabi-sabi rendered in sound: beauty in decay, completeness in fragmentation.

envelope decay

Piano Interior

Each string vibrates independently,
decaying at its own pace —
an orchestra of solitudes

Selected Works

1978
Thousand Knives 千のナイフ
1983
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence 戦場のメリークリスマス
1987
The Last Emperor アカデミー賞作曲賞
1996
LIFE オペラ作品
1999
BTTB ピアノ回帰
2009
out of noise 環境と音の境界
2017
async 非同期の音響彫刻
2023
12 最後の録音

ars longa, vita brevis

芸術は長く、人生は短い