Pioneering Japanese electronic musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died at the age of 71, it’s been confirmed.
Sakamoto rose to prominence as a keyboard player and vocalist in Yellow Magic Orchestra, which he formed alongside Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono in 1978. With their heavy use of synths, samplers, drum machines and sequencers, the band were at the vanguard of the burgeoning synth-pop movement.
