The Last Emperor (album)

The Last Emperor is the soundtrack album for the film of the same name. It features nine pieces composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, five by David Byrne, one from Cong Su, and a few incidental pieces of source music. The album won the Best Original Score award at the 1987 Academy Awards, and won the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media award at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards in 1989.

Track listing

Personnel

Production

• Ryuichi Sakamoto – composer, producer, performer
• David Byrne – composer, producer, performer, arranger, mixer
• Cong Su – composer, performer
• Gavyn Wright – conductor
• Aki Ikuta – associate producer
• Hans Zimmer – associate producer, programmer
• Hiro Sugawara – programmer
• Kayo Itose – production secretary
• Ray Williams – music supervisor
• Kōji Ueno – arranger
• Lau Hong Quan – arranger
• Yuji Nomi – arranger

Technical

• Hayden Bendall – engineer
• Mike Jarratt – engineer
• Shinichi Tanaka – engineer
• Clive Martin – engineer
• Ian Sylvester – engineer
• Michio Nakagoshi – engineer
• Shigeru Takise – engineer
• Greg Fulginiti & Greg Calbi – mastering
• Glen Rosenstein – mixer
• Steve Nye – mixer
• Mark Roule – mixer

Charts

Impact

The film "brought Sakamoto's work to international attention, and as a direct result of its success he went on to work with Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.’’

References