Bleep

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s latest solo studio album is a series of sketches for piano and synthesiser dated during his fight with cancer throughout 2021 and 2022, minimal and created on impulse yet bursting with emotion. These tracks grapple with mortality, uncertainty, sifting through sparse palettes in search of answers. The muted synths of ‘20210310’ scream out into the ether, mesmerising as they reach into the spaciousness. Every key press on ‘20211130’ feels weightedly purposeful, candid, and deeply intimate. “I just wanted to be showered in sound,” was the impetus for 12, and the result is wholly enveloping.