When they’re not saving the world, Yellow Magic Orchestra, find time to play synths in caveman outfits and throw back a few Kirin beers.

Live Earth will begin in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007 and continue across all 7 continents with official concerts in Japan; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; London, United Kingdom; Hamburg, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before concluding in New Jersey, United States.

Live Earth Tokyo will feature the following acts live on stage: AI, Ai Otsuka, Ayaka  Cocco, Genki Rockets, Kumi Koda, Linkin Park, Rihanna Rize, and others to be announced at a later date.

In addition to Yellow Magic Orchestra, the special Kyoto event will also feature Michael Nyman, Rip Slyme, and others to be announced at a later date.

Live Earth marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by the Alliance for Climate  Protection and other international non-governmental organizations to move individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming. Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is the Chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection and a Partner of Live Earth. “Live Earth is taking place across all seven continents because the climate crisis affects us all, and all of us must be a part of the solution,” Gore said. “Live Earth will engage individuals, corporations and governments to take action against the climate crisis.”

Live Earth Japan will be broadcast on NHK and Fuji Television Broadcast Company, and to more than 100 countries worldwide as part of the global television feed.

The Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture opened for testing on March 31st, 2006. Less than two weeks later, radioactive water containing plutonium and uranium spilled inside the plant.

In response to the opening of the Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant and the associated dangers that go along with the plant’s operation, on May 16th, electronic musician Ryuichi Sakamoto launched an international campaign to raise awareness of the risks of nuclear energy and to raise awareness of renewable alternatives.

The stop-rokkasho message is even more crucial now that the Japan Times has reported that Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., whose spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, has a design flaw, a miscalculation for earthquake resistance, that its maker, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., allegedly kept secret for 11 years until it was reported last Thursday.

Visitors to www.stop-rokkasho.org can stream the full-length version of “RADIOACTIVITY,” and a special edit mp3 is also available. You can preview it below, or get it as part of the stop-rokkasho podcast.

March 04

Today we’re highlighting YMO’s Ryuichi Sakamoto and his Stop Rokkasho project.

The Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture opened for testing on March 31st, 2006. Less than two weeks later, radioactive water containing plutonium and uranium spilled inside the plant.

In response to the opening of the Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant and the associated dangers that go along with the plant’s operation, on May 16th, electronic musician Ryuichi Sakamoto launched an international campaign to raise awareness of the risks of nuclear energy and to raise awareness of renewable alternatives.

Sakamoto has created free tracks for the site and solicited new tracks, remixes and music videos from other electronic musicians, including DJ Krush (preview his track below), Ton, Ryddan, Atom and Thomas Dolby (preview below).

Best of all, the music is Creative Commons licensed, so you can download, share and remix it. There are dozens of free downloads at the site.

YMO Reunion

The original members of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) were back together in Japan recently to celebrate the launch of the group’s first ever song being available for sale by download. Many obstacles have kept the group’s music off download sites for years, but they were recently able to record a new version of Rydeen, retitled Rydeen 79/07, available for sale in Japan from the commons/Avex label.

YMO teamed up with Kirin Beer to celebrate the occasion with the Kirin Lager meets YMO ad campaign. Since the site is in Japanese, we’ll save you a few hapless clicks by telling you to click on the yellow circle on the bottom right corner of the page.

Silk Soundtrack

Ryuichi Sakamoto is currently in production on the original motion picture score for director Francois Girard’s (The Red Violin), Silk. Based on a novel by Alessandro Baricco, Silk tells the story of a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler in 19th century France traveling to Japan for his town’s supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their African supply. During his stay in Japan, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron. Starring Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt, Silk is currently slated for a fall, 2007 theatrical release.Radio Sakamoto Podcast

Highlights from Sakamoto’s J-Wave (Japan) radio show are now available around the globe via podcast. Generally airing six times a year, there are currently three episodes available for free download.

Radio Sakamoto podcast details
Additional information is available at the show’s J-Wave homepage (Japanes):

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani Artists in Residence @ YCAM

Ryuichi Sakamoto+Shiro Takatani present the “LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible …” opening event with a special laptop concert on Saturday March 10th at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in Yamaguchi, Japan. The opening will be followed by a special artist talk with Sakamoto and Takatani on March 11th.

After the opening “LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible …” can be experienced daily at YCAM through Monday, May 28th (closed Tuesdays) from 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM.

Chain-music updated

Sakamoto’s chain-music project has just been updated with a contribution from agf. The piece can be heard in its entirety at http://sitesakamoto.com/chainmusic.

To date, 22 artists have made a contribution to chain-music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Towa Tei, Atom Heart, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, David Sylvian, Mika (Pan Sonic), Thomas Knak, Cornelius, moOg Yamamoto, Christan Fennesz, Paul D. Miller (a/k/a DJ Spooky TSK), Daniel Bernard Roumain, Hector Zazou, mukul, Taylor Deupree, Christopher Willits, groopies, O.Lamm, sutekh, and more to follow!

Here’s Sakmoto’s official ‘notion’ for chain-music:

”In March, 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, I felt that I had to advocate peace over war, so I started this little web project. Even though the 100,000-plus Iraqi civilian and the 3,000-plus US military lives lost to date can’t be brought back, I want to keep this project alive and open until the war has ended, until peace comes to Iraq. The idea is to chain musical pieces from one artist to another, like a chain letter. The purpose is to musically mark the passage of time that Iraq is in a state of war, to mark the steps to peace, to take each day that there is war and build a musical memorial to the desire for peace as well as to mark off the time of war. So far 22 artists have contributed their musical pieces, adding on to the existing work vertically as well as horizontally, overlaying or extending the existing creation. There are no rules how to contribute musically, except that the contributor must not eliminate any of the existing music as he or she adds to it, because the existing music is the result of the artistic contribution of the other artists.”
-Ryuichi Sakamoto February, 2007

Babel

Babel recently won the THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for Achievement in Film Music at the 2007 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAS) for the original score composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. In additional to Santaolalla’s score, Babel also prominently features several Sakamoto compositions, including Bibo no Aozora in the film’s closing scenes.

The Missing Peace is a multi-media art exhibition that brings together 88 well-respected artists, representing more than 25 countries. With the full life of the Dalai Lama as inspiration, the intention for this project is to shift the world’s attention towards peace. In addition to Sakamoto’s Sonic Mandala, other artists contributing to the installation include: Laurie Anderson, Richard Avedon, Richard Gere, and Sebastiao Salgado.

“Peace starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities.” – His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama,1989 Nobel Laureate for Peace.

All works in the exhibition have been donated by the artists and will be auctioned to raise funds for the peace initiatives of the Dalai Lama Foundation (DLF) and the Committee of 100 for Tibet (C100), the co-sponsoring organizations. The Dalai Lama, who has met with The Missing Peace organizers on several occasions, supports the project and will be lending a work of art from his personal collection.

After it’s run at the Fowler Museum, The Missing Peace moves on to Chicago’s Loyola University Museum of Art, and New York’s Rubin Museum of Art.

More information is available at The Missing Peace site.