Sakamoto helped pen the score for The Last Emperor, one of many films on which Bertolucci has worked. The festival’s first two editions respectively covered the works of choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer Philip Glass.
Sakamoto, meanwhile, has been extremely busy. He recently contributed to Daniel Bernard Roumain’s etudes4violin&electronix, which will be released in May on Thirsty Ear, and is about to have his collaboration with Christian Fennesz, Cendre (Touch), released worldwide on May 15. Fennesz will spend two weeks touring Europe with Mike Patton in late May and early June. Glass joined Sakamoto in performing on the album, as did DJ Spooky, DJ Scientific, and Peter Gordon.
The far-reaching Japanese musician also has accepted a track for his Stop-Rokkasho Project from electronic legends Kraftwerk. The project, which aims to stop the impending operations of Japan’s Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, was begun with the help of Jonathan Barnbrook, Pedro Inoue, Kenja Yasaka, and Takashi Saito. Kraftwerk’s song, a live rendition of “Radio Activity,” can be downloaded for free at the Stop-Rokkasho Project website, as can music and art by dozens of artists.