Ryuichi Sakamoto was one of Japan's innovators in electronic pop with the group
Yellow Magic Orchestra, and he later established himself as a world-class composer, winning an Academy Award for his score for the film
The Last Emperor. But
Sakamoto's evocative music can be just as effective on a smaller scale, and on the album
Playing the Piano, he performs 12 pieces -- some new, some new interpretations of older works -- that have been arranged for solo acoustic piano. Several tracks from the Japanese albums 04 and 05 have been included in this collection. ~ Mark Deming