'Opus' - The last concert of Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto

Lovers of late great Japanese film composer, musician, actor and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto have long awaited the release of his posthumous album "Opus."

The collection of his works by Sakamoto were performed one final time on solo piano shortly before his death.

He was already too ill to perform the whole set at once so recorded and filmed the works in a series of sessions at the legendary NHK 509 studio in Tokyo.

Musical genius Sakamoto died just a few months later, in March last year, at the age of 71, after a long battle with cancer.

"The project was conceived as a way to record my performances — while I was still able to perform — in a way that is worth preserving for the future," Sakamoto said after recording the concert on “Opus,” according to Rolling Stone magazine.

"In some sense, while thinking of this as my last opportunity to perform, I also felt that I was able to break new ground."

A catalogue of his works

"Opus," for which Sakamoto played solo piano without an audience and which was recorded by his son Neo Sora and filmed in black and white, comprises the entire catalogue of his works with which Sakamoto made music history over the decades.

There are early pieces from his time as band leader of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in the 70s and 80s, once counted among the "Kings of Techno" together with the German band Kraftwerk, and deeply emotional, Grammy and Oscar-winning film scores such as "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" and "The Last Emperor."

The album also includes a handful of new and never-released recordings, including a reworked version of the track "Tong Poo," which appeared on YMO's debut album in 1978.

Other new tracks include "For Johann," a tribute to the late Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson, and "BB," which was written for the director of "The Last Emperor," Bernardo Bertolucci.

"He conjured emotions we don’t yet have names for," said cultural journalist Sophie Monks Kaufman, of Sakamoto's work. Her quote is immortalized in the opening credits of the US trailer for the film of the same name, "Opus."

From jazz to techno

Sakamoto, born on January 17, 1952, near Tokyo as the son of a publishing director and a hat designer, learned to play the piano as a young boy and studied composition in the Japanese capital.

His first album, "Thousand Knives," a mixture of electropop, jazz and experimental music, was released when he was 26.

Sakamoto, who had played in jazz bands at school, experimented extensively with electronic sound generators and explored the musical traditions and peculiarities of third world countries.

He found global fame when he joined YMO at the end of the 70s and became one of the most influential techno musicians in the world.

His unbridled thirst for knowledge and love of experimentation meant that almost every one of his records sounded different from the last. He also wrote the music for numerous films, including "The Revenant."

Sakamoto was also an activist, campaigning against nuclear power and for the environment.

In 1998, he described "sadness and frustration... about the fact that people are starving in the world, and we are not able to help them. People are dying, and yet the political and economical and historical situations are too complicated and inert for us to do much about it."

In 1998, Sakamoto said he was "not religious, but maybe spiritual."

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, initially beating it before doctors diagnosed rectal cancer in 2021. Sakamoto had surgery to remove the cancer, which had spread to both lungs.

"Opus" was his last ever performance.