Improvised Music from Japan / Discography

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto

(Columbia Music Entertainment, COCB-53330) (Japan) (CD)

  1. Thousand Knives (9:34)
  2. Island of Woods (9:48)
  3. Grasshoppers (5:13)
  4. Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied (8:03)
  5. Plastic Bamboo (6:28)
  6. The End of Asia (6:17)

All music composed and performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Moog III-C with Roland MC-8 Micro Composer, Poly Moog, Mini Moog, Micro Moog, Oberheim Eight Voice Polyphonic with digital programmer, ARP Odyssey, Korg PS-3100 Polyphonic, Korg VC-10 Vocoder, Korg SQ-10 analog sequencer, syn-drums, acoustic piano, marimba

Harry Hosono (1): finger cymbals
Motoya Hamaguchi: syn-drum solo (1), Brazilian bird whistles (2)
Kazumi Watanabe: alembic guitar solo (1, 6), rhythm (6)
Yuji Takahashi (3): acoustic piano duo with Ryuichi Sakamoto
Tatsuro Yamashita (4): castanets
Pecker (5): syn-drum solo

Recorded at Columbia Studios #1, #2, and #4, Tokyo, April 10-July 27, 1978
Produced and orchestrated by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Recording management by Akira Ikuta
Computer operation and synthesizer programming assistance by Hideki Matsutake
Cover photo by Makoto Iida
Cover design by Sign
Includes liner notes (in Japanese) by Hikaru Hayashi, Harry Hosono, and Ryuichi Sakamoto (original release); and by Yoshio Matsushita (re-release)

Released in April 2005
Originally released in October 1978 as an LP on Nippon Columbia (YX-7586)