Drawn under the pre-show cinema glow of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda—a documentary portrait of the titular artist directed by Stephen Schible.
Sakamoto is a living example and invitation to expand the boundaries that define our understanding of what ’music’ is, or what makes a sound useable for artful purposes. One of my favourite scenes is when it’s raining heavily outside his apartment and he is captured rushing about in search of everyday objects that could collaborate with the rain as a percussion instrument. His urgency oozes of possibility and naïveté. He crouches low, climbs ladders, re-angles his ears—whatever takes him closer to the sound. He eventually puts a plastic bucket on his head and stands there absolutely chuffed in the middle of his garden.
Coda was perceptual turning point for me, and I left the theatre with new ears now open to hearing sounds with greater granularity.