Ryuichi Sakamoto featuring Sister M -- The Other Side of Love

One of the many topics that my friend and I briefly touched upon during dessert at Amausaan yesterday was Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）...notably what he's been up to recently. We went over his Oscar win along with David Byrne and Cong Siu for "The Last Emperor" soundtrack back in 1987, the fact that his "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" is as much of a perennial Xmas song in Japan as Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Christmas Eve", and of course his work as one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra. I actually checked his website and aside from a supposed update regarding his "Essentials" album, there wasn't any action there. I'm indeed hoping that the throat cancer scare in 2015 has been totally quashed by now.

Although I didn't go blazing into the record stores to ravenously search for his material when I was living in Japan, I think the 1990s were a time when Sakamoto shed at least most of his ties to technopop and veered into a more New Age direction. The two songs that I've remembered him for during that decade were the piano instrumental "energy flow" from 1999 and one that came earlier "The Other Side of Love".

Unlike "energy flow", "The Other Side of Love", which was released in January 1997, did have vocals from Sister M. However, this wasn't a lateral relation of Sakamoto but still someone very close to him. Namely, Sister M was Miu Sakamoto（坂本美雨）, daughter of Ryuichi and singer-songwriter Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）. She's already been covered by nikala through her article "Tetsudoin" (鉄道員)/Child of Snow.

Worthy of introspective silence and relaxed breathing, "The Other Side of Love" was Sister M's debut single, and like the later "energy flow", it was one of those songs and music videos that seemed to have a long-term residency on the TV rankings shows. It's a languid song but it's not something that would be heard passively in a neighbourhood cafe...I think the powerful piano from pere Sakamoto and the clear vocals of Miu, who was only 16 years old when this was recorded, demand something more active from listeners' ears.

"The Other Side of Love" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon. It was also used as the theme song for the NTV drama "Stalker -- Nigekirenu Ai"（ストーカー 逃げきれぬ愛...Inescapable Love）.