LONDON.- Modern Films announced the UK release of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, the directorial debut of Stephen Nomura Schible, which will open in cinemas on 29 June 2018, following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

One of the most important artists of the contemporary era, Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, now 66, has had a prolific career spanning over four decades, from techno-pop stardom, including his membership of the pioneering and influential band Yellow Magic Orchestra and work with the likes of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and David Sylvian, to recording no less than 16 solo albums, taking in rock, classical and ambient minimalism.

As an Oscar-winning film composer (for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor ), Sakamoto has composed over 30 film scores for the likes of Pedro Almodovar to Brian de Palma. He is celebrated for his much-loved theme to Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and most recently scored Alejandro G. Inarritu's The Revenant (with collaborator Alva Noto), as well as contributing music to the original soundtrack for Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino).

Exploring how Ryuichi Sakamoto’s awareness of environmental, social and even his personal crises have brought change to his musical expression, Schible’s Coda is an intimate and poetic film, taking viewers on a journey through Sakamoto’s life, allowing for a chance to imagine how he hears the world, and to witness how he finds new musical expression, through the creation of his most recent and highly acclaimed album, ASYNC .

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by an earthquake in 2011, Sakamoto became an iconic figure in Japan’s social movement against nuclear power and Schible’s film begins at this politicized moment, then following the artist over a period of five years, observing as he composes in his Manhattan studio, or following him to remote locations where he records the natural sounds that are to be woven into his music, from deep in a forest, to a glacier in the Arctic Circle. As Sakamoto returns to music following an unexpected cancer diagnosis, his haunting awareness of life crisis leads to a resounding new masterpiece. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda is an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda will be released in the UK alongside a live concert film of the 2017 album ASYNC, captured during an intimate performance by Sakamoto at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, which marked the first public unveiling of the opus.