Ryuichi Sakamoto Ustream Live from Los Angeles

An acclaimed Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto, is going to perform in Los Angeles, and broadcast it live on Ustream at 9pm on Nov 5, 2010 (PST). It's time to appreciate the music, and enjoy the spiritual piano solo concert! Make sure to have a headset or connect better speakers to your computer.

Ryuichi Sakamoto revolutionized the pop music not only in Japan but the all over the world since 1980. His extraordinary music sense fulfilled academy-awarded films, and changed the style of Japanese music.

The 58 years-young musician is never old. He agreed to broadcast the entire concert of his North America Tour on Ustream. And over 5,000 Japanese fans enjoyed his performance across the Pacific Ocean.

At the evening of November 4th, 2010, the Ustream screen started broadcasting the rehearsal. Although it was during the lunch time of working day, over 2,000 people were already tuned in. There was the empty pianos on stage. The audience started coming into the audtrium. The very clear and high quality sound enhanced the realistic feeling as if the viewers were also there.

After the 10 minutes delay, Sakamoto showed up in the black and white screen at 8:10pm (PST) and 12:10pm (JST).

Although the broadcasting team only had the mobile Internet (MiFi system). They were able to get the live music feed from mixing console, and brought the Blu-Ray quality of music to the audience.

Sakamoto has been recording all of his North America concerts, and releasing them on iTune as soon as possible (currently, Seattle concert is available on iTune Japan).

Ustream team was able to get the very sound that will be mixed and released on iTune later.

Furthermore, this broadcast was done only by two staffs, Tomoyasu Hirano (@dsHirano) and Susumu "Sam" Furukawa (@SamFurukawa).

They spent their pocket money to execute this series of broadcasts.

Furukawa is former president of Microsoft Japan.

Hirano is the president of Digital Stage, a software company for web, video and music applications. If you are VJ, you've probably heard of MotionDive. He's also known as one of the pioneers of Ustream celebrity in Japan.

The story began on October 27th, Furukawa posted a tweet that Sakamoto asked Furukawa to broadcast his Seattle concert on Ustream on October 30th, and he was worried if he could do well.

Hirano saw that tweet, and asked Furukawa if he could jump on a plane and help his broadcast. Furukawa replied yes. Hirano cancelled all of his schedule as a president of a software company, and booked a flight ticket and left for Seattle.

Literarily, this project were done by two company executives as their hobbies, yet made this event as another Ustream phenomena in Japan.

Hirano and Furukawa were originally planning only to broadcast Seattle and Vancouver concerts. However, due to overwhelming demands of audience, they got rid of reserved tickets, and decided to postponed and continue to broadcast until Los Angeles concert.

This is not just the masterpiece of Sakamoto, but another revolution of Japanese social media and Japanese music industry.

Don't miss the last broadcast of Ryuichi Sakamoto concert.

We recommend to watch the streaming with headset. It will enhance your experience garanteed.

Ryuichi Sakamoto Ustream Concert from Los Angeles

Date & Time (USA): Friday November 5th, 2010 (USA / PST) - 9:00pm~
Date & Time (Japan): Saturday, November 6th, 2010 (Japan) - 1:00pm~
Location: El Ray Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

URL to watch: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/skmt09

Los Angeles Concert Live Local Times

* The time is subject to change.
* The staff is occasionally broadcasting the rehearsal prior to the concert.

Set List (San Francisco Concert Nov 3rd, 2010)

1. Glacier
2. Improvisation
3. Hibari
4. Still life
5. Nostalgia
6. In the red
7. A flower is not a flower
8. Mizu no naka no bagatelle
9. Amore
10. Tango
11. Bibo no aozora
12. 1900
13. Loneliness
14. The Sheltering Sky
15. The Last Emperor
16. Behind The Mask
17. Tibetan Dance
18. Thousand Knives
19. Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence (encore)
20. Aqua (encore)