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If your taste in big screen viewing runs more film + cinema than big budget blockbusters, you most likely noted the untimely passing of Japanese composer, electronic music pioneer, and film soundtrack maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto this past Spring.
If you wanted to catch up on Sakamoto—or, if you just want to pay respect to his legacy by going deep and wide1 on his oeuvre—you could daisy chain Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (which stars David Bowie, and which is not a family holiday film), The Last Emperor (for which he collaborated with David Byrne), The Sheltering Sky (Debra Winger + John Malkovich = intense), and The Revenant (which other Seattleites will note was recorded here, with performances by the Northwest Sinfonia … who says grunge is dead?). Definitely the opposite of a summer feel-good triple-header, but you’d have a lot to think about and stir over on these long, hot days.
(You could also go music-only; his albums and collaborations offer their own kinds of moving images.)
But if, on the other hand, you just wanted to fall into Sakamoto’s headspace as oropharyngeal and then rectal cancer were coloring his final days, you could set aside some time to sit in contemplation with the soundtrack he made for his funeral2.
I mean, how could he not? After a lifetime of coaxing strings and synths to create meaning and texture for character developments and building action, he had to compile the aural element of his final public appearance, right?
But here are my questions to you:
Would you, could you do the same? Have you already? How many times have you been deep in the pocket of some playlist or mixtape and starting thinking, “This is just the sentiment I’d like to cue when I’m gone”? or “This is how I’d like to be remembered.” How does it feel when that happens? Is it creepy? Disconcerting? Comforting? Does it just feel like good, satisfying work, done well ahead of deadline? (no pun intended)
What have you noticed in the past about the world of this task, this funereal element, as a guest—or, as the person responsible for the playlist if not for planning the entire ceremony or service? What makes a track wrong or right? What mood or movement is just right, what era or genre isn’t right at all? What are we trying to share or show when we make these soundscapes? Do we want to evoke tears? Do we want to evoke memories? Do we want to evoke something like hope? What is the task of listening like, when you’re mourning and grieving? What is the task of creating and compiling like, when you’re mourning and grieving? And really: What does music do to us or for us as we sit in ceremony at the end of someone’s life?
Imagine you had a fully realized mixtape readied for the end of your life. How would the people in your life feel upon discovering that that element of funeral planning was already completed? Now imagine it the other way: Someone you love has passed after a long illness, and you find out they made their own ceremonial playlist. How would that land?
And, really, what songs would go on your list, and what would they say about you—what part of you, or what image of your life, would they bring into the room?
My husband always does this when someone whose work he respects passes on, and it’s one of the things I love most about him. After, say, Monica Vitti and Tom Verlaine, I knew he’d had their movies and songs queued up for the next few days; that we’d review what they gave the world as reflection, a witnessing, as a way of saying thanks.
In mid-May, Sakamoto’s management released the playlist via his social channels, saying, “We would like to share the playlist that Ryuichi had been privately compiling to be played at his own funeral to accompany his passing. He truly was with music until the very end.”
this is what we played at my mom’s service. the first song we listened to a lot as she actually died; the second and last she prescribed in a journal/long letter she left for me; the rest are little snippets that she gave to me over our years together https://open.spotify.com/playlist/57shTu2KnSB5UfGwTZ0ht4?si=16iEZb-PQJGFK5Ni-uL-Xw
I have been trying to find a way to remember ryuichi and delve deeper into his work. i've listened to his music on and off for the past couple decades but did not know about that funeral playlist and haven't seen all of those films. officially on my watch/listen list, thank u <3