音楽図鑑 [Ongaku Zukan]

Yellow Magic Orchestra went on hiatus in 1983, yet Sakamoto remained busier than ever. Commercial work, acting in films while also scoring films (and also the subject of a film), producing albums for his wife Akiko Yano and many others, he also started work on Ongaku Zukan. He treated production like an office job, clocking in Monday through Friday and putting in long hours, but even then the album took 22 months all told. The ambitious album veers from Tokyo folk melodies to cocktail jazz to total abstraction. Fascinated by the new Fairlight C.M.I. and its sampling possibilities, Sakamoto obsesses over all manner of small sonic details, making it one of his most intricate mosaics in his discography.