Ryuichi Sakamoto – Beauty
Label: Virgin – UICW-10029
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, SHM-CD
Country: Japan
Released: Dec 22, 2021
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Folk Rock, Pop Rock, Abstract, Downtempo, Synth-pop
1. Calling From Tokyo Drums – Sly Dunbar Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Tabla – Pandit Dinesh Vocals – Brian Wilson, Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Nicky Holland, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoriko Ganeko, Youssou N'Dour Words By – Arto Lindsay, Roger Trilling, Ryuichi Sakamoto 4:26
2. Rose Bass – Pino Palladino Lyrics By – Arto Lindsay Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos* Piano, Keyboards, Vocals – Ryuichi Sakamoto Voice [Poem Reading] – Arto Lindsay 5:12
3. Asadoya Yunta Guitar – Carlos Lomas Keyboards, Arranged By [Vocals] – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Choho Miyara* Sanshin, Castanets [Sanba] – Yoriko Ganeko Tabla – Pandit Dinesh Vocals – Arto Lindsay, Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Yoriko Ganeko, Youssou N'Dour Words By – Katsu Hoshi 4:36
4. Futique Guitar – Bun Itakura Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Rap – Arto Lindsay Shekere – Milton Cardona
Violin [Double] – Shankar Vocals – Laura Shaheen Words By – Arto Lindsay 4:09
5. Amore Guitar – Carlos Lomas Guitar [Solo] – Eddie Martinez Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Percussion – Paco Yé, Seidou "Baba" Outtara, Sibiri Outtara Shekere – Milton Cardona Talking Drum – Magatie Fall* Vocals – Arto Lindsay, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Youssou N'Dour Words By – Arto Lindsay, Roger Trilling 4:56
6. We Love You Bass – Pino Palladino Guitar – Dali Kimoko-N’Dala* Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Lead Vocals – Robert Wyatt Music By, Lyrics By – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards* Percussion, Vocals – Paco Yé, Seidou "Baba" Outtara, Sibiri Outtara Shekere – Milton Cardona Vocals – Brian Wilson, Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoriko Ganeko 5:15
7. Diabaram Acoustic Bass – Mark Johnson* Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto, Youssou N'Dour Vocals – Youssou N'Dour Words By – Youssou N'Dour 4:13
8. A Pile Of Time Gayageum [Kayagum] – Sang-Won Park* Keyboards – Ryuichi Sakamoto Music By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Sitar – Daisy Paradis
Vocals – Arto Lindsay, Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoriko Ganeko Words By – Arto Lindsay 5:34
9. Romance Drums – Sly Dunbar Gayageum [Kayagum], Vocals – Song-Won Park* Guitar – Eddie Martinez, Robbie Robertson Keyboards, Arranged By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Leader [String Section] – Sham Guibbory* Music By – Stephen Foster Sanshin, Vocals – Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Yoriko Ganeko Tabla – Pandit Dinesh Words By – Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Yoriko Ganeko 5:32
10. Chinsagu No Hana Keyboards, Arranged By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Percussion – Paco Yé, Seidou "Baba" Outtara, Sibiri Outtara Sanshin, Vocals – Kazumi Tamaki, Misako Koja, Yoriko Ganeko 7:28
11. Adagio Arranged By – Ryuichi Sakamoto Erhu – Jiang Jian Hua Guitar – Arto Lindsay Music By – Samuel Barber Piano – Ryuichi Sakamoto
7:48
Art Direction [Original] – Robert Bergman-Ungar
Art Direction, Design [Reissue] – Koichi Takase*
Coordinator [Equipment] – Jiro “Yamaadat” Yamada*
Coordinator [Musician Coordination] – Verna Gillis
Coordinator [Reissue Artwork] – Noriko Yamamoto (2)
Engineer – Greg Calbi, Ikuo Honma, Jason Corsaro, Kinji Yoshino, Mark Lynette*, Naoto Shibuya, Roger Moutenot, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yutaka Arai
Engineer [Assistant] – Dan Gellert, Douglas Rose*, Gary Solomon, John Herman, Junichi Yamazaki, Michael White (4), Seiichi Yoritomi, Tetsuya Ishizuka, Yuuki Mizutani
Liner Notes [Reissue] – Kei Wakabayashi
Mastered By [Original] – Greg Calbi
Mastered By [Reissue] – Robin Schmidt
Mixed By – Jason Corsaro, Ryuichi Sakamoto
Photography By – Albert Watson
Producer [Original Associate] – Roger Trilling
Producer [Original Associate], Cover [Concept] – Norika Sora
Producer [Original] – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Producer [Reissue] – Norika Sora
Product Manager [Reissue, International/USM] – Minoru Harada, Yuko Matsuoka
Product Manager [Reissue, Universal Music Group/UMe] – Maxwell Dartey
Production Manager [Assistant Reissue, KAB America Inc.] – Maria Takeuchi
Production Manager [Reissue, KAB America Inc.] – Alec Fellman
Production Manager [Reissue, Kab Inc. (Japan)] – Mai Yuda
Programmed By [Drums] – Arty Smith*, Jimmy Bralower
Research [Reissue Tape] – Akihito Watanabe, Peter Macchia, Toshikazu Fujieda
Technician [Fairlight Operation] – Bill Seely
Technician [KAB Studio Set Up] – Yuji Suguyama
Technician [Keyboard Assistant, Computer Operation] – Masaya Nishida
Technician [Keyboard Set Up] – Aaron Kropf
Technician [Programming, Computer Operation Equipment] – Jeff Bova
Technician [Sound Sampling] – Mato Fujii*
Technician [Synclavier Operation Assistant] – Takami Sueyoshi*
Technician [Synclavier Operation] – Shingo Take
Digisleeve packaging.
The Japanese reissue liner notes by Kei Wakabayashi (Editor / Content Director at Kurotosha) translate as follows:
Outer-National Dream
Needless to say, in 1989, when "BEAUTY" was released, the world was in a lot of turmoil. The biggest event that symbolizes this year is the collapse of the Berlin wall, which would decisively end the Cold War regime that had been operating since World War II. The victory of the Western camp, that is, the camp of democracy and the free market, also ensured a shift took place from a time when "politics" was the main stage of international competition to "economy". Neo-liberal economics and globalization, along with the dismantling of the Cold War structures, became a trend that spanned the entire world. It was during the 1980s that "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" made a major leap from a specialty newspaper to a general newspaper in Japan. Its circulation, which was 1.85 million in 1981, would reach the 3 million mark in 1991.
Nowadays, neoliberalism and globalization are the bad guys, but back then that wasn't always the case. At that time, it would have been difficult to realistically predict the downside that it would bring because Japan was still in the midst of an economic bubble. And also, back then it did seem to open up new possibilities in the realm of culture.
When J-WAVE, which started in 1987, established the concept of "J-POP" throughout 1988-89, what excited many listeners was that the divisions between Western music and Japanese music were being dismantled. It was the reason I dreamed of a new global pop music. A renewal of "Kayokyoku", which by nature was only a local phenomenon, and relocate this Japanese pop music in the global music environment. Such ambitions must have sprung up after "J-POP". The hit chart "TOKYO HOT 100", which has become the signpost of J-WAVE, appeared as a manifestation of these new ambitions and dreams of the international city of Tokyo having a great outlook on the world. At least, these were my expectations when I was a high school student during this era (after 30 years, it's been Korean pop having been greatly influenced by J-POP that has jumped to the top of the world as the global pop from Asia).
In the world of pop, "Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814" was the biggest hit in 1989. The crisp, flashy sound by Jam & Lewis was one of the targets of black pop in the 1980s, but what impressed me about the demand in Japan was the all-out offensive to be part of this. Japan Airlines (JAL) sponsored a commercial in which Janet and her crew landed at the airport and swept through the Japanese living room singing and dancing, and in 1990, JAL facilitated her Tokyo Dome performance, which was broadcast live on TV during prime time.
The commercial scheme of linking pop stars to global brands grew huge, starting in the mid-1980s with the global "Victory Tour" that Pepsi provided for Janet's older brother Michael (and his brothers The Jacksons). Japan, which was still in the bubble era at that time, was proud to have the economic strength to lift along on this trend, and it introduced a new way for international businesses with big overseas brands to become major advertising players in Japan. By the way, MC Hammer swept through the room with "U Can't Touch This" in 1990, and did a large-scale dome performance in 1991, and the fact that these global hits lifted up the whole of Japan taught us once again that the world is united in a global economy.
Ryuichi Sakamoto's "BEAUTY" was produced against this background of the times. The term "globalization" had not yet become used generally. In an interview conducted at the time, Sakamoto proposed the word "Outer-National" as a counter-concept to "Inter-National" and as a motif that runs through this piece of work. Here was an image of a new group of individuals or subjects who abandon their nations or nationalities and connect with each other, furthermore Sakamoto stated that these individuals will move around the world as "entrepeneurs". This image of an individual who abandons the political concepts of "nation" and "nationality" and travels around the world as an "entrepeneur" coincides with the fact that the times were unexpectedly shifting away from "politics" towards "economy".
In a globalized society, people become nomads by breaking away from being a political subject and, by doing so, they become more free and open-minded in their exchanges. A new global music was supported by these ideas and values. At that time, they spoke most positively about what kind of world was desirable and how humans would live in it. "World music", a major trend in the music scene back then, was welcomed and expected as a positive model for the coming global world, where local and global were interconnected. In addition, the fluidity of human resources that occurred in conjunction with these developments would create new movements in the world of underground music, and individuals who easily crossed boundaries such as genre and nationality would enjoy a worldwide network. We visualized what could be called a global grassroots movement. Sakamoto recalls at that time he envisioned the future this way:
"From the end of the 70's to the beginning of the 80's, people of different ethnic backgrounds emerged in the cities in the music and fashion scenes, and I felt it was very new. In terms of music, it was the influence of African music. Even when I listened to The Flying Lizards, who were not obviously bringing African aspects to the fore, I sensed it had an ethnic feeling to it, and I thought rock was completely in the past, and at the same time I was really excited to feel the beginnings of a new era. In movies, it was the near future as displayed in "Blade Runner". People with diverse ethnicities are moving around in the city of Los Angeles, and the language has become Creole. An Asian granddaddy is hacking DNA in a messy back alley in the city, and I feel I was relentlessly on the lookout for such a world view. Throughout the 1980s, I was inspired by that image, and "NEO GEO" and "BEAUTY" were the culmination of that".
If you want a list of works dating from around 1989 when "BEAUTY" was released that show a similar image of the world, here is such a list, based on my personal experience:
"Greed" by Ambitious Lovers, an avant-pop duo by Arto Lindsay and Peter Scherer (1988).
The ambitious album "Estrangeiro" (1989) by Caetano Veloso, a major figure in the Brazilian MPB world, produced by Peter Scherer.
"Rei Momo" (1989), in which David Byrne, having left Talking Heads, tries to immerse himself in world music.
"Brazil Classics 1 - Beleza Tropical" (1989), the first compilation of the label "Luaka Bop" that Byrne presides over.
"Naked City" (1990) by Naked City, the forefront of avant-garde jazz formed by the heroes of the downtown New York scene.
The soundtrack "Step Across The Border" (1990), which has the same title as the documentary film, shows the encounter between Fred Frith, a member of Naked City and an improviser, and underground musicians from all over the world.
The music on these releases and the various musicians who participated in them conformed to the model of "Outer-National World People" that Sakamoto was talking about. Cosmopolitan irrespective of nationality or genre. Music entrepeneurs roaming the planet. Maybe it was difficult for these people to get a feel for how much "future" they had. However the decentralized, interconnected network communities they formed were, to say the least, well ahead of the Internet. Needless to say, Ryuichi Sakamoto was an important node in Asia in the network of artists who were utterly connected to the world, and was the best role model for Japanese people to admire. And I was one who at least listened to "BEAUTY" in the same context as the works listed above.
Looking back again at "BEAUTY", it is interesting to note that here the trend of global industrialization and the parallel trend of individual outer-nationalization intermingle.
For this release, Sakamoto had a contract with "Virgin Records America", established in 1980. As the music business begins to shift into a global industry and local pop music in Europe and the United States transforms into "global pop", the newly established "Virgin Records America" fired Sakamoto as a white arrow to become a new leader in pop music in the global era. What was expected of Sakamoto in "BEAUTY" was to create a "new global pop". And Sakamoto dealt with that command head-on. He intended to provide the most pop work he could make, and said he was proud that the finished work was pop without any fuss.
However, there was a big gap between how record companies think about global pop and how Sakamoto thinks about it. After the work was completed, a confident Sakamoto let the record company representatives listen to the newly completed product, and as he recalls all the representatives remained silent because it wasn't exactly what they had been expecting. The single "You Do Me", which was not recorded for the album but was prepared in a hurry for the radio / charts, is said to have been assigned the same producer to "make it sound like Paula Abdul" at the request of the record company. Paula Abdul was very popular as a solo artist at the time, and in actual fact she is the person who choreographed Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation".
Sakamoto, on the other hand, thought about "pop" from a completely different angle. On this release, the concept developed on "NEO GEO" is further expanded and the aim was to create music that has the functionality of pop music whilst at the same time overturning or relativizing the values of Western music with an "Outer-National" sensibility.
Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Robbie Robertson of The Band, legend of UK rock Robert Wyatt, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour, Jiang Jian Hua the Erhu player, Misako Koja and Yoriko Ganeko are treated as equivalent to artists such as the Okinawa Chans, Milton Cardona, Sly Dunbar, Arto Lindsay and Kazumi Tamaki, and furthermore, Sakamoto forced each artist to move away from the territory in which they had been active before and to move outside of "nationality" and "ethnicity". So have a Senegalese star sing Okinawan folk songs, put the lyrics of Okinawan words on Foster's song, and have the Erhu player perform Samuel Barber's masterpiece. These bold experiments by Sakamoto exploited and colonized the diverse musics of the world at will, in the process also becoming a clear antithesis to Western pop music. As Sakamoto explains:
"Inter-National means that each person has their own nationality, and let's hold hands on that premise. It's a narrative about nationality. Instead, the idea of Outer-National is that you have to let go of your nationality, and that everyone should get to a place that isn't anywhere specific. Musically, it was "Romance" made from Foster's song and "Adagio" by Barber, as well as "Chinsagu no Hana" and "Asadoya Yunta". Since I'm Japanese, I was very curious if a stupid story like this existed about showing the essence of being Japanese. You have to get out of the framework of your nation, and you have to get out of your ethnicity. I emphasized this strongly to the musicians who participated. Instead of quoting ethnic things as ear candy, I want to go beyond that."
The globalization of industries and the desire for a new individual separate from the nation are the two sides of the coin of globalization. And I cannot find a work that captures both sides in such a unique way as "BEAUTY" does. In it, the cold brilliance of corporate-led global business and the striking features of the individuals involved who are becoming decentralized and separated co-exist in a very unique way. The strangeness and exquisiteness of that balance is once again amazing.
The overall sound is as rich as it can be, but the sound of each instrument sounds sharp and naked. Sakamoto says that mixing engineer Jason Corsaro had a lot to do with this stunning sound mix. Corsaro worked on numerous releases as the chief engineer at New York's prestigious "Power Station" studio, his work is represented by releases such as Madonna's "Like A Virgin", Foreigner's "Agent Provocateur", Cyndi Lauper the 80's pop / rock crying kid's "True Colors", Duran Duran's "Seven And The Ragged Tiger" and "Arena", Steve Winwood's "Back In The High Life", Robert Palmer's "Riptide", etc. and many other top albums that kept a lower profile.
(As an aside, Corsaro collaborated with Nile Rodgers for the first time on "KooKoo", the first album by Debbie Harry, who had just disbanded Blondie, and also on Rogers' solo album "Adventures In The Land Of The Good Groove" in 1983. He is a mixing engineer, and it is said that it was Corsaro who recommended Nile Rodgers as the producer for Madonna's second album. In this modest way Corsaro contributed to bringing to a new high Nile Rodgers' career as a producer, which had been in danger after the disappearance of the disco boom. Needless to say, Corsaro also worked on "Power Station", a joint Duran Duran and Chic rhythm section effort with Robert Palmer on vocals.)
The working relationship between Sakamoto and Corsaro started with "NEO GEO", but during the production of "BEAUTY", the relationship became deeper and closer. Sakamoto recalls that every day for two months, after mixing from midnight to dawn, he checked the result at the hotel where he stayed in New York, returned to the studio, and repeated the work. For Corsaro, who lived in the mainstream pop / rock era of the big majors, Sakamoto's variety of "global pop" was completely different from the music he knew. However, fascinated as he was by the unknown sounds created by Sakamoto, Corsaro gladly enjoyed the challenge of letting the two directions of the era that Sakamoto had foreseen converge into one sound world, and poured all his skill and know-how into it. During that production period, Corsaro admired Sakamoto like an older brother and always followed his way.
Sakamoto admits that Corsaro's sound didn't always match his taste, but he was inspired by his enthusiasm and vision and let the mixing proceed as he wanted. Jason Corsaro died in 2017 at the age of 58, and his work on "BEAUTY" still stands out in his oeuvre. It is possible to position "BEAUTY" as one of those unique goals and singularities in the career of the innovator who had created the sound of 80's pop and spread it all over the world.
Sakamoto left Japan and moved to New York with the production of this album. Sakamoto said that he envisioned it to be the Outer-National, cosmopolitan, dynamic and vibrant city that was visible in the music scene at that time. But that expectation was quickly betrayed. The Outer-National aspect of the city can only be seen in a very limited part of it, and most of the United States has been conservative, introverted, unsophisticated, uninterrupted since the 1950s. This was no world where individuals could leave the country and connect freely and move around feeling excited. "Far from Outer-National, not even Inter-National". Words spoken by Sakamoto about the disillusionment he felt at the time.
Somehow it is connected with the disillusionment that many felt later throughout the 90's. Conflicts continued even after the Cold War, and the deregulation brought about by neoliberalism has turned every corner of society into a market, and while poor versus good food is justified as the responsibility of the individual, for those with vested interests the advantage became ever greater. The corporate economy, which became a financial game, has become fat and bloated, and the digital sector that emerged in the 1990s will also ride on that wave and continue to grow endlessly as a tyrannical economic entity. The lively exchange zone that connects autonomously moving individuals quickly transformed into a plantation managed by a giant platform.
The dazzling and vibrant "global" visions that were once the stuff of dreams were miserably betrayed and cut off each time hope was raised. But, it is not always the case that the dream was abandoned completely. The question "Can 'global' be more human and nicer?" is alive and well, and every time that hope is spoken out, we decentralize and interconnect with the "Outer-National". We continue to discuss the ideal construction of interpersonal networks and communities.
In "BEAUTY", the two paths pointed out by the concept of "global" were identical animals before they diverged, and were joined as one possibility. More than 30 years after the release of this album, the times have changed drastically and the scenery of the world changed completely, and now we can remeasure the distance and direction of the path that the world has taken since.
This work depicted a grand dream and vision for the future. In reality, that vision may have been betrayed time and time again, but we cannot say the vision itself has disappeared completely. If you listen to this newly remastered album and feel the beauty of something about to happen, these dreams are still actual. In my personal opinion, the power I gained when I listened to it at that time was never lost, and it arrived with even more urgency in 2021.
