Ryuichi Sakamoto

First international release of Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1983 album “Coda" his rendition for solo piano of the 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' soundtrack.

As recently covered by Kraftwerk in honour of their departed friend, ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’ is perhaps the most enduring and best known of Sakamoto’s inimitable canon. After appearing in the summer ’83 release of the eponymous film, whose soundtrack made Sakamoto a global household name, the piece was re-recorded on a Steinway Grand Piano for release on tape as ‘Avec Piano’, and a domestic Japanese vinyl edition entitled ‘Coda’ that would elude many outside the country for decades.

This first international pressing of ‘Coda’ is a facsimile of the Japanese version, headed by the beloved original Steinway cover of ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’, recorded at Onkyo house in Ginza, as a clear-eyed (and tear-jerking) homage to the influence of Debussy, particularly ‘Claire De Lune’, and follows that line across a suite of piano works, both dramatic and softly pronounced, to a pair of ethereal ambient pieces weaving synths with keys in ‘Japan’, and the tongue-tip beauty of its ‘Coda’, which lends the album’s title.