“Ars longa, vita brevis” – art is long, life is short. This is one of Japanese music icon Ryuichi Sakamoto’s favorite quotes, and the message that he leaves for viewers at the end of his final concert film, shot before he succumbed to cancer in March 2023. Consisting of only Sakamoto and his piano, Opus features the final live performances of 20 songs that Sakamoto meticulously curated to encapsulate his distinguished 40-year career.
Terrain (Extended) features an expanded version of the composition re-arranged for the Portico Quartet Ensemble – a subtle re-configuration of the band that features a string quartet - and which allowed for the compositions deeper textures and resonances to be fully explored, along the way expanding the dialogue between tranquillity and a subtly unsettling melancholy, that makes Terrain such a beautiful, powerful piece. Recorded live in the extraordinary acoustics of Studio One, in one continuous live take, with the cameras rolling.
"The show happened during Midsummer with the band playing in a white-walled room with two windows behind them looking over the valley.I had no lights on in the venue. As they played, the sun slowly set behind the venue so by the end of their set they were but shadows in the twilight. It was no ordinary show, it was something else in every possible meaning of the phrase."
Music live performance of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto at the Glass House.
The final day of a series of Yoshiki Classical with Orchestra concerts held on 19 September 2022, at Tokyo International Forum.
