First solo album from Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto in eight years. async was conceived as a soundtrack to a non-existent Andrei Tarkovsky film. Sakamoto took inspiration from nature, sculpture and the everyday objects around him to craft an aural landscape that moves like Tarkovsky’s long shots. It’s beautifully chilling material that draws you into an intimate, if somewhat unstable, world. There are moments that recall Satie and others that will take you back to Sakamoto’s early 80s material. Fifteen tracks in all. Released by Milan Records on double vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve.

• 180g black double vinyl pressing
• gatefold sleeve
• original release year: 2017
• music label: Milan Records 2023

reviewed by Hank Ohs 09/2017

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