The legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto has been quiet since his 2017 album async, spending most of his time composing film scores, though earlier this year he dropped a bombshell; he’s suffering from stage 4 cancer. He’s battled throat cancer since 2014 and rectal cancer since 2021, but few were privy to how much his condition had worsened. However, he remained resilient, declaring, ”Since I have made it this far in life, I hope to be able to make music until my last moment, like Bach and Debussy whom I adore.” His tenacity is unsurprising as his stature within ambient and electronic music spheres has persisted as long as his career. Even on later efforts like 2007’s Cendre with Fennesz, Sakamoto refined himself. His developments never ended, whether he was branching into scoring films like The Revenant, acting in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence alongside David Bowie or serving as the tabula rasa of modern electronic music.

Through this context, A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto – To the Moon and Back becomes melancholic. The album compiles reworked tracks from the likes of David Sylvain, Alva Noto and other Sakotmoto collaborators as well as talents that the Oscar and BAFTA-winner influenced like Thundercat and Devonté Hynes. Although the tracklist pulls from his vast catalog and comes from different artists from different decades, there’s a bond between them. Sakamoto’s traces appear throughout the reworkings, from the most audacious to the least transgressive, not only retaining as much consistency as one could in a project of this nature but keeping the focus squarely on him. It is, after all, A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto, and nobody attempts to steal his spotlight.

The interesting note is that Sakamoto was never a spotlight-grabbing composer, especially in the past several decades. His work crept away from Thousand Knives and B-2 Unit’s attention-snatching immediacy into more evocative works. Most of A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto – To the Moon and Back keeps his classy yet bashful palette. For instance, the Hildur Guðnadóttir-fronted “World Citizen I Won’t be Disappointed” reworks the original into a piece that’d fit alongside Sakamoto’s later compositions, eschewing rhythm for space.

Only Thundercat’s take on “Thousand Knives” keeps Sakamoto’s quirky inclinations alive, but that’s to be expected from the idiosyncratic bassist. His remodeling sounds nothing like the original, running slightly longer than half of the title track from Sakamoto’s debut album, which itself is a progressive oddball electronic masterwork, whereas Thundercat’s is a funky bass showcase. It’s a wise decision to transpose Sakamoto’s youthful eccentricity into a modern reworking. A simple cover wouldn’t do justice to the original as it’d be an exercise in execution rather than experimentation, and Sakamoto always favored the latter.

However, “Thousand Knives” is a red herring among the rest of the tracks. They are delicate, like Fennesz’s “Amore”, though Electric Youth’s reworking of “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” personifies that point more than any other. It retains Sakamoto’s piano but drowns it in reverb. Furthermore, the Canadian electronic duo whisk the melody away from its string climax and into a chilly overdubbed. Despite its electronic drama, Electronic Youth keep Sakamoto’s trademark tenderness at the core of “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.”

Collaboration has always been a core tenant of Sakamoto’s craft. It’s thus little surprise that the most sincere tribute to honor him would come in an album of hypotheticals; what if Thundercat hit the studio with Sakamoto? What would a Blood Orange and Sakotomo duo number sound like? As such, A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto – To the Moon and Back is a primer for those searching for a ground zero for the artist. Think of it as a spoiler-free review; it captures Sakamoto’s essence without giving away the magic of listening to him. It’s as much an entry drug into Sakamoto’s work as it is merely a glimpse into his decades-long career.