A rare album by Ryuichi Sakamoto, entitled BTTB, will be reissued in November to mark its 20th anniversary.
Milan Records – which also released Sakamoto’s 2017 LP async and its remix album – will be reissuing the record on 9 November. A double-vinyl package will follow in 2019.
Furthermore, the remastered edition will feature liner notes from famed author Haruki Murakami. For the album’s reissue, Murakami writes: “Personal and intimate music – somebody (an anonymous somebody) sitting alone in front of the school piano early in the morning, weaving a melody, exploring harmonies. Music that gradually fills a space with high ceilings that contains the wafting presence of rain.”
“But music that leaves gaps where necessary. Once in a while, we need music like this and this way of being…no, perhaps all the time. We need it as much as we need hot black coffee at the break of dawn and a cat napping next to us in the afternoon.”
An acronym for Back to the Basics, the piano solo record was first issued in 1998 but has been difficult to find outside of Japan since. Comprised of 18 tracks, the LP was partly inspired by Claude Debussy and Erik Satie.
Recently, Sakamoto’s documentary Coda was released online via MUBI. He also published a playlist he made for his favourite restaurant in Japan via The New York Times, featuring tracks from Aphex Twin, Oneohtrix Point Never and more.
Check out the artwork and tracklist for BTTB below.
Tracklist
01. opus
02. sonatine
03. intermezzo
04. lorenz and watson
05. choral no. 1
06. choral no. 2
07. do bacteria sleep?
08. bachata
09. chanson
10. distant echo
11. prelude
12. sonata
13. uetax
14. aqua
15. energy flow
16. snake eyes
17. tong poo
18. reversing
(via RA)