Ryuichi Sakamoto '12' LP

Ryuichi Sakamoto releases his first original album in six years, since async released in 2017. The album 12 is a collection of 12 songs selected from the musical sketches he recorded like a sound diary, during his two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer. Each song is titled by the date the song was recorded. Artwork for the album was created by renowned artist Lee Ufan for whom Sakamoto has enormous respect.

Comment from Ryuichi Sakamoto:

"In early March 2021, after a major surgery and a long hospital stay, I returned to my new temporary home. At the end of March, when my body was recovering a little, I happened to touch the synthesizer. I wasn't conscious of what to make, I just wanted to be bathed in "sound". It felt like it healed a little bit of the damage to my body and mind. Until then, I didn't have the physical strength to listen to music, let alone make sounds, but from that day on, I would occasionally touch the synthesizer and piano keyboards and record sketches as if I were writing a diary. I chose 12 sketches that I liked and put them into an album. I dare to present it as it is without doing anything. I will continue to keep a diary like this until I run out of energy."