Ryuichi Sakamoto “was arguably the best-known and most successful Japanese musician in the world.” (Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia) He won an Oscar for his soundtrack to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and several Golden Globes and Grammy awards and nominations
for other films. In 1992, he scored the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics, conducting the orchestra while a billion people watched. Sakamoto’s film scores are renowned for their diversity and sensitivity. It is rare for a band to play this music live, and now the Bang on a Can All-Stars realize their own new live arrangements of the album 1996 which includes an incredible selection of many of Sakamoto’s greatest hits – music from films including The Last Emperor, Wuthering Heights, The Sheltering Sky, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and more. The Bang on a Can All-Stars play Ryuichi Sakamoto is an exploration, a tribute, a celebration.
Since its inception in 1987, Bang on a Can has become
the center of gravity for the most adventurous music of
today and tomorrow. In this supercharged musical ride
through the recent past to right now you’ll hear the music
of master composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass,
Meredith Monk, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael
Gordon, Ornette Coleman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and
more, performed by the unstoppable Bang on a Can
All-Stars.
The Bang on a Can All-Stars have toured and recorded with fellow American composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, and Terry Riley for more than 30 years. Now at or nearing 90, most are no longer touring, but the All-Stars are. The All-Stars’ virtuosity, depth, breadth, and groove is on full display In this custom-catered set of masterworks of American minimalism.
Celebrating the legendary composer’s 90th birthday year (2027), Bang on a Can All-Stars perform a brand-new arrangement of the iconic Philip Glass album Glassworks in its entirety, exclusively arranged for the group by Glass’ long-time music director Michael Riesman.
Music and text by David Lang | Video design by Tal Rosner
With words and music by Lang, before and after nature looks at
humanity’s relationship with nature—a meditation on the natural world, both before human existence and after humans are gone. Drawing from various creation myths, as well as writings by John Muir,
Bill McKibben, Jedidiah Purdy, and others, Lang imagines the world before it was divided between humans and nature. As part of this new work, Lang enlisted video artist Tal Rosner, whose visual design is projected above the ensembles. Rosner’s images combine distorted views of the natural world with computer-generated graphics that nonetheless appear organic, representing the ways in which people alter the natural world just by looking at it. With sources ranging from planetary to domestic, his digital assemblages fuse the telescopic and microscopic to create imaginary environments where sun spots, cloud formations, and the ocean surface are superimposed, stretched, color-shifted and abstracted to the extent of leaving mere trails of their essence, engaging the viewer in a continuous game of un- and re-learning the Elements.
