The Goo 1
Glasshouse he frequently arranged and rearranged
his music for classical forces. For example, the fourth track in our setlist, M.A.Y in the Backyard, is from the 1984 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia in which Sakamoto almost exclusively used the Yamaha DX7. He then arranged it for piano trio for his 1996 album. We've built on this and added more instruments including synths. Following this, Solari and Andata from the async album, composed mostly using Korg and Moog instruments are reimagined for string quartet and full ensemble respectively. So in this way, we're kind of continuing the composer's tradition of expanding and contracting his work, and the clear demonstration of his fluency in both the electronic and acoustic world gives us a really good entrance point to reinterpret his work. However other more experimental tracks from the async album and much of his work with alva noto would have posed a much more difficult challenge both in terms of transcribing and arranging but also in terms of putting together a distinctive performance. So that feels like a good limitation for what we're doing with Sakamoto's output. Did you notice any 'tricks' or patterns to Sakamoto's composing skills when deep diving into his catalogue? We wouldn't say there are any tricks per se but it's quite apparent, and well documented, that Sakamoto broadly draws on several distinct musical influences. Baroque, Jazz, Minimalism, Debussy and Ravel, as well as pop music by The Beatles, Bowie, the experimental work of John Cage and of course traditional music of Japan. There is a strong sense throughout much of PAGE 40 his music that the composer draws on and weaves in and out of these influences as needed in a way that feels like it's primarily contributing to both the emotional trajectory of the piece and developing his own musical language. But Sakamoto is endlessly experimental and breaking down boundaries. He often worked with noise and found sound as a means of deriving musical material from more abstract sources. It's clear from his consistently varied output across a career that spans several decades that the composer was always on the cutting edge of technology. So his trick really was to integrate that into music that never feels inaccessible. Are you tackling any of the YMO catalogue and if so how did you approach the arrangements as they are quite mad? Yes they are fairly wild! We've got a few tracks from their first album 'Solid State Survivor', and one or two other bangers, and the setlist really takes quite a turn once these get going. We transition from works that are quite sentimental, slow moving with a carefully considered structure, to high-octane tracks with fun, quirky melodies and driving bass lines which still sound futuristic even today. While the rest of the set features a lot of, we hope, tasteful additions in terms of instrumentation and ornamentation, we tried to stick closely to the original recordings by YMO and to simply translate the material to the ensemble lineup. Given how whimsical and eccentric they songs are, we didn't feel it was necessary to completely reimagine them. The one exception is Behind the Mask, which is a lot more kitsch than the other YMO we do so required a bit more attention to make it work. Our arrangement takes cues from the original and later covers with additional lyrics and makes it moodier and more epic. It helps that even though the songs are so distinctive in their soundworld, the musical language is still very much deeply rooted in classical music idioms, which is unsurprising given Sakamoto's involvement. It's also fair to say that many sounds of early synthesizers were modelled after classical instruments in order to make electronic music more palpable to critics in the early stages of its development. Have you a favourite piece and why? Oh it’s so hard to choose! On the calmer side I think for me it would have to be ‘Bibo No Aozora’ taken from the 1996 record and also featured in the film Babel. There’s something so calm and reflective about the gorgeous and deceptively simple theme introduced by the piano all the while being accompanied by these gently swaying eight- notes that continue throughout the whole piece and are played by different instruments in the ensemble. It’s very serene and beautiful. The expertly created arrangement by Aran gives everyone a chance to contribute the overall vibe of the piece! From the upbeat half of the show, THOUSAND KNIVES by YMO is an absolute blast to play and really gets everyone going! Glasshouse performs Ryuichi Sakamoto, Saturday 18th January 2025 in the National Concert Hall. Tickets available from www.nch.ie