Award-winning composer and musician RYUICHI SAKAMOTO has made a career crossing musical and technological boundaries. Sakamoto has experimented with, and excelled in, many different musical styles throughout his career, making a name for himself in popular, orchestral, and film music.

In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album and formed Yellow Magic Orchestra along with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Y.M.O.'s second album sold well over a million copies, led to a world tour, and made them, along with Kraftwerk, the kings of technopop. Releasing eleven albums over the next five years, Y.M.O. developed a following that continues to the present day.

Sakamoto's best-known film work is probably the soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, but in 1987, his score for Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won him an Oscar©, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, as well as the New York, Los Angeles and British Film Critics Association awards for best original soundtrack. Since then he has worked with Bertolucci twice (Little Buddha), Oliver Stone (Wild Palms), Pedro Almodovar (High Heels) and Brian De Palma twice (Snake Eyes and Femme Fatale). Sakamoto also maintains a career as an actor, having starred with David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor, and Madonna's Rain music video. Sakamoto has also appeared as a celebrity model for Barney's New York, fashion designer Antonio Miro, the Gap, and from time to time has appeared as a menswear model in the world's most prestigious magazines. Sakamoto made his debut as a DJ in 1997 at Stephen Sprouse's spring '98 show, which also marked Sprouse's triumphant return to the fashion world.

In 1999 Sakamoto's first opera, Life, premiered with seven sold-out performances in Tokyo and Osaka. This ambitious project featured contributions and performances by over one hundred performers, including: Jose Carreras, Salif Keita, Salman Rushdie, Pina Bausch, His Holiness Dalai Lama and members of the Frankfurt Ballet.

Recently Sakamoto joined his frequent collaborators Jaques and Paula Morelenbaum at the home of the late Antonio Carlos Jobim in Rio to record Casa, a collection of hidden treasures and some previously unrecorded material written by Jobim under the group name Morelenbaum2/Sakamoto. Casa was released internationally in August, 2002 by Sony Classical and has already been named a Top 10 Album of the Year by Billboard magazine.

With Ryuichi Sakamoto the only constant is change. The sheer breadth of musical styles he explores - even within one album - is central to his being as an artist. He feels no need to exist within musical boundaries, and he celebrates tearing them down.