Sakamoto co-starred in the film with David Bowie.
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score for Nagisa Ôshima’s World War II film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence will be reissued on vinyl this Friday, but you can hear the soundtrack in full now.
It was the Yellow Magic Orchestra luminary’s first film score. He’s since composed award-winning scores for The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky and is still at it, working with Alan Novo on last year’s Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed The Revenant.
Not only did Sakamoto cut his film score teeth with Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, he also starred in it alongside David Bowie. Back in January, Sakamoto spoke to FACT about their work together:
“I never pursued an acting career, it was not my intention, but it’s a fact that I acted in a film for the very first time with David Bowie, who was amazing,” he said. “I was with him for a month, every day, on a very small island in the South Pacific Ocean. It was an amazing experience. He was very nice guy.”
This deluxe vinyl reissue is part of Milan Records’ Nicolas Winding Refn presents… series, which has previously featured Disasterpiece’s It Follows OST and a reissue of Brad Fiedel’s original soundtrack for The Terminator.
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is out October 21. Stream it before its release below.
Read next: The Returned: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto on recovery, Oscars and David Bowie
