Ryuichi Sakamoto’s BTTB album reissued on vinyl with liner notes by Haruki Murakami

Dream team.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s BTTB LP will be reissued for the first time – in a new 20th anniversary edition, this November via Milan Records, reports RA.

Read more: An introduction to Ryuichi Sakamoto in 10 records

Originally released in 1998, BTTB, which stands for Back to the Basics, features Sakamoto’s solo piano versions of 18 tracks including Yellow Magic Orchestra number ‘Tong Poo’.

The remastered reissue contains liner notes by famed Japanese author Haruki Murakami, whose forthcoming book Killing Commandante will be released in October.

As Murakami writes in the liner notes: “Personal and intimate music—somebody (an anonymous somebody) sitting alone in front of the school piano early in the morning, weaving a melody, exploring harmonies. Music that gradually fills a space with high ceilings that contains the wafting presence of rain.”

“But music that leaves gaps where necessary. Once in a while, we need music like this and this way of being…no, perhaps all the time. We need it as much as we need hot black coffee at the break of dawn and a cat napping next to us in the afternoon.”

In August, Murakami also hosted his first radio show, where he discussed writing, running and records.

Earlier this year, Milan records released async Remodels on vinyl, which reimagined Sakamoto’s async – one of our favourite albums of 2017.

A 2xLP version of BTTB will also be released in 2019.

Listen to ‘energy flow’ ahead of BTTB‘s November release, and check out the track list below.

Tracklist:

1. opus
2. sonatine
3. intermezzo
4. lorenz and watson
5. choral no. 1
6. choral no. 2
7. do bacteria sleep?
8. bachata
9. chanson
10. distant echo
11. prelude
12. sonata
13. uetax
14. aqua
15. energy flow
16. snake eyes
17. tong poo
18. reversing