The recent death of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto triggered the need in pianist Helena Basilova to record an album of his piano works. Driven by love and admiration for his music, the album is a tribute to him, to his musical legacy and innovative approach to piano sound.

Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023), composer, musician, producer, has broken down barriers between different music genres ranging from classical-, jazz-, film- to 80’s synth-pop and experimental electronic music. Influenced by Bach, Debussy but also by John Cage, Boulez and Ligeti, he can be seen as an impressionist of modern times. Classically trained and from a family of musicians, Helena has always been absorbed to explore new music and genres. Her father- being a prominent composer who studied with Alfred Schnittke- wrote works for her from the youngest age. Since then, collaborating with living composers and contemporary music projects has always been important and on the forefront of her work. Discovering music of Sakamoto has been a big inspiration for Helena to re- imagine the possibilities within piano sound. It opened doors to experiment with electronic music and pushed boundaries to write music and work on bigger scale audio-visual productions.

Piano music has always been very central in Sakamoto’s oeuvre. Like a homebase to return to after different phases in life. Sculpting the piano and its possibilities from minimal intimate pieces to more complex ambient works. The collection of works recorded on this album is a tribute to the intimate, mysterious and poetic world left by Sakamoto.

Carefully selected from Helena’s favourite Sakamoto albums Async, Out of noise, 12, Insen and Playing the Piano they form a new anthology with a fresh sound. Played in her own way, timing and with alternative electronic soundscapes produced and recorded together with Maarten Vos in Funkhaus Berlin.

Recorded on 15,16,17 september 2023 Leiter Studio’s Funkhaus Berlin Producer: Maarten Vos
Recording Engineer: Antonio Pulli Mastering Engineer: Zino Mikorey

‘ Helena Basilova played sensitively and with flair ’ – The New York Times
Rooted in a deep understanding of tradition and interpretation, Basilova collaborates with composers and artists all over the world and is dedicated to finding new interfaces between performer and audience. The continual longing for alternatives to the familiar makes Helena go places, see people and try things –
for therein lies the possibility of finding a new insight, composition, sound or way of expressing herself.
Ever curious, Helena embraces extra-musical aspects that fit the context of a particular programme. As did Alexander Scriabin a century ago, when he combined sounds and colours. In 2016 Helena developed a visual-musical performance inspired by Scriabin together with video artists from DEFRAME collective. From this experience new collaborations followed and projects evolved with visual artists Vincent Rang, Boris Acket, Vladimir Grafov, Jurjen Alkema and Nick Verstand.

In 2018 Helena presented and published music by her late father Alexander Basilov. His personal history drew a line from his teachers Alfred Schnittke and Lev Naumov all the way back to the famous Russian piano school of Heinrich Neuhaus. Helena’s recording and publication of Basilov’s music received international media attention.

Having music written for her from when she was seven years old, Helena feels a natural connection to contemporary music. It is something of a personal calling to lead the public to the most interesting works and enjoy exploring new territory together. Helena performed, among others, at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall, New York City), Hyogo Performing Arts Centre (Japan), Rachmaninov Hall (Moscow), Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the NCPA in Mumbai, Banff Centre (Canada) and the Amsterdam Dance Event.