Ryuichi Sakamoto, 'Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son'
Sakamoto is one of the most respected Japanese composers and Yellow Magic Orchestra is an important band to know about. With this original soundtrack Sakamoto is tasked with providing the score for a film with painful and difficult subject matter. Most tracks have a traditionally tonal neo-classical form. He seems to borrow from Copland, Bartok, Shostakovich, and even John Williams’ less campy material. Other times uses the relatively recent 4th world tradition that he himself help pioneer. I have no complaints about this music as a stand-alone record by a Japanese composer. However, and this is a difficult criticism, but for the content of the film the sound almost ironically Western. While I respect that Europe does not hold a monopoly on traditional symphonic music there’s no hints at all of traditional Japanese music and it’s a film about the aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing.