Music Sets You Free

A bestseller in Japan, a remarkable reflection on making art, living life, and accepting death, from the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto, the world-renowned musical genius and godfather of electronic music.

One of Japan's most influential artists and composers, Ryuichi Sakamoto was a man of multitudes. Perhaps best known as the Oscar-winning composer of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and a founder of the groundbreaking electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto was a pop icon, an avant-garde visionary, a techno innovator, and a proud environmentalist. While his unique brilliance transcended mediums as well as borders, Sakamoto himself was curious about how he came to be the complex phenomenon known as "Ryuichi Sakamoto”—a journey to answer the question, "Why do I lead this life?"

Filled with candid photos, Music Sets You Free is the incredible chronicle of a life excitingly lived: an intimate, contemplative, and fascinating recounting of his life story as a musical journey, from his first childhood encounter with a piano to his rise as a global pop star and award-winning composer. Sakamoto's boundless curiosity led to myriad experiences: producing catchy yet experimental hits with YMO, starring with David Bowie in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, collaborating with pop geniuses such as David Byrne, Iggy Pop, and Brian Wilson, appearing in a Madonna music video, and even modeling for the Gap.

Throughout his career, Sakamoto was also a dedicated social activist, avidly protesting nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, and restoring a tsunami-damaged piano for his 2017 album async. While the pain of surgeries and treatments left him both emotionally and physically vulnerable in his later life, Sakamoto pushed through the pain to record his final artistic evolution into more avant-garde work after a transformative trip to Greenland during which he witnessed the effects of global warming first-hand.

Music Sets You Free is both a self-reflective testament and thought-provoking meditation on life, mortality, and the enduring power of art. It is the memoir of a visionary whose life and work embodied the aphorism Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (“Art is long, life is short”). The final published work from a creative genius, it is a rare and lasting performance in words that beautifully accompanies Sakamoto's eternal, moving performances in music.

Translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett

Born in 1952, Ryuichi Sakamoto was a world-renowned musician, actor, and environmental activist. A member of the pioneering proto-synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto was noted for his range, composing music for a wide variety of settings, including film, television, video games, commercials, and the 1992 Olympic Games. His awards include an Academy Award, a Grammy, a BAFTA, and two Golden Globes. Sakamoto passed away at the age of 71 in 2023.

Sam Bett is a fiction writer and Japanese translator of novels by Osamu Dazai, Akira Otani, Yukio Mishima, and Mieko Kawakami, including books shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. A recipient of the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award from the Japanese government, he is a winner of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize and the CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation.