坂本龍一 (Ryuichi Sakamoto) - Chasm

Chasm - 2004

"My music has been acoustic or electronic, classical or non-classical, somehow always divided largely into two types. My own goal for a long time has been to somehow fuse these into one music rather than juxtaposing them. I really haven't wanted to keep on presenting them separately. I love both types of music and doing both is what I'm known for. Plus, creating a fusion of my own would be the sort of thing I could do; I think it would be the music closest to who I am, so I've really made an effort. I feel that this time, with Chasm, I've gotten the closest to resolving the issue. At the same time, for these past few years I've felt very frustrated and stifled trying to create new music using a trial-and-error approach. I experienced a strong feeling of being blocked in the real world of post-9/11. On top of this, for the 3 years-plus that I've been working with Morelenbaum2/Sakamoto it's been difficult for me to physically do my own music, and so I think I'm expressing a sense of all this frustration in Chasm. Consequently, of course, in the arrangements the sounds aren't jammed in, and the music has an open feel, a sense of refreshing simplicity." - Ryuichi Sakamoto