Ryuichi Sakamoto's Solo Piano LP 'BTTB' Gets 20th Anniversary Reissue

The new edition will include liner notes from Haruki Murakami

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Sep 11, 2018

It's been 20 years since Ryuichi Sakamoto released his 1998 solo piano album BTTB, and to mark the occasion, Milan Records is reissuing the effort for its anniversary year.

The remastered anniversary edition of BTTB (an acronym for Back to the Basics) will see release on November 9. A double-vinyl version will follow in 2019.

The reissue includes liner notes from Japanese author Haruki Murakami. An excerpt of his writing reads as follows:

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.​

Pore over the tracklist and hear "energy flow" in the player below.

BTTB - 20th Anniversary Edition:

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

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