Chain Music

Release date:

June 19, 2003

Copyright:

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Length:

1:09:08

Status:

Official

Publisher:

sitesakamoto.com

A project by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto handed over a piece of music to (currently) 18 members, who individually added something to the track and passed it on to the next project member.
You can hear David clearly say the “World Citizens” lines.
The first release (June 19th, 2003) features 9 members: Sakamoto Ryuichi, Hosono Haruomi (Sakamoto’s YMO colleague and 1/2 of Sketch Show), Towa Tei, David Sylvian, Ikeda Ryoji, Mika Reenc (Pansonic), Atom Heart, and Carsten Nicolai.

Sequential versions:

• The track with major work by Mika Reenc (length 6:49).
• The second release (October 19th, 2003, length 8:18) which featues a 10th member: Thomas Knak who also works under the name of Opiate, and is a member of Future 3.
• The third release (December 8 2003, length 9:38) which featues an 11th member: Cornelius. Japanese pop-noise savant Cornelius was born Keigo Oyamada in 1971; a self-taught guitarist inspired early on by Kiss and Black Sabbath, his musical alias was later chosen as an homage to the film series Planet of the Apes.
• The fourth release (10 February 2004, length 12:45) is the version extended by moOog Yamamoto (no further information available about this artist)
• The fifth was release on 29 May 2004 and is extended by Christian Fennesz(length 15:43). Christian is a well-known collaborator of David and more about Christian can be found here.
• The sixth was available on 3 August 2004 and was extended by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky (length 16:28)
• The seventh release was available on 30 September 2004 and is extended by Daniel Bernard Roumain (length 22:19).
• Release number eight was available since 30 March 2005 and was extended by well known Sylvian collaborator Hector Zazou (length 26:43).
• Release #9 was available since July 2005 and is extended by Mukul. (length 29:44)
• Release number ten was available since 17 September 2005 and was extended by Taylor Deupree. (length 36:47)
• Release #11 is available on the site since january 2006 (mp3 name contains date 20.11.2005) and was extended by Christopher Willits.

Since then I lost track and the final version was extended furthermore by goupes, O.Lamm, sutekh, AGF, Zavoloka, TBA and Thomas Brinkmann to a total length of 1 hour and 10 minutes!

The track can be downloaded here (65 Mb to download).