Ryuichi Sakamoto reveals details of his new album, async

The name of the album has finally been announced and there’ll be a world premiere listening event too

Earlier this year, it was announced that Ryuichi Sakamoto would be releasing an album on 28 April. It’s been unveiled today that the album, titled async, will be released via Milan.

The album’s concept has been explained as “a soundtrack for an Andrei Tarkovsky film that does not exist” with the artist drawing his inspiration from “everyday objects, sculpture, and nature”. The body of work “plays with ideas of a-synchronism, prime numbers, chaos, quantum physics and the blurred lines of life and artificiality/noise and music”, incorporating elements from “museums around the world” and “a deep selection of unique acoustic and electric sounds both programmed and organic”.

It’s been eight years since the Japanese composer and producer created a solo album. async will be his first studio album since 2012’s Three, with Jaques Morelenbaum and Judy Kang, and the first since his recovery from cancer in 2015. It also follows up from his score for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film The Revenant.

Furthermore, the album will be making its debut at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. Festival-goers can enjoy async in 5.1 surround sound before it’s due to be released.

Additionally, Sakamoto will be performing at Park Avenue Armory Veterans Room in New York, on 25 and 26 April.

Check out the artwork and tracklist below. Tickets for Big Ears Festival can be purchased here.

Tracklist

01 andata
02 disintegration
03 solari
04 ZURE
05 walker
06 stakra
07 ubi
08 fullmoon
09 async
10 tri
11 Life, Life
12 honj
13 ff
14 garden
15 water state 2 [vinyl-only bonus track]