Various Artists: To the Moon and Back, a Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto (digital outlets)

It probably won't diminish your enjoyment or interest in this tribute album if you aren't familiar with the work of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto whose career encompassed the Yellow Magic Orchestra, solo work, award-winning soundtracks (The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to the Grammy-nominated The Revenant), numerous collaborations (David Sylvian to Youssou N'Dour) and music for anime films.

It is a vast catalogue so the likes of Sylvian, Cornelius, Hildur Guonadottir, Fennesz, Cinematic Orchestra and others weren't short of material.

The most immediately appealing tracks are those which work off Sakamoto's more ambient or atmospheric work (Lim Giong on Walker, Cornelius on Thatness and Thereness. Alva Noto on The Sheltering Sky) although in the remake-remodel stakes Thundercat overhauls the busy blip-pop original Thousand Knives into something quite special, albeit typically busy as is his wont.

There is loveliness here (Devonte Hynes' interpretation of Choral No 1, Cinematic Orchestra's minimalist treatment of DNA, composer Otomo Yoshihide's spare With Snow and Moonlight) but right at the end is the appropriately disconcerting theme to The Revenant by Russian son et lumiere artists 404.zero.

.

You can hear this album at Spotify here