Eroded every day by streaming-induced playlists and the muzak of non-places, our capacity to imagine or escape through music is disappearing. The soundscapes that give acoustic form to our mental states vanish the moment we set foot in any shop, shopping centre, restaurant, swept away by algorithms and bad taste. But at last the voice of an authoritative musician and composer like Ryuichi Sakamoto has risen to say enough is enough.

Ryuichi Sakamoto between vegan food and background music

A regular at Kajitsu, a vegan Japanese restaurant in Manhattan a few blocks from his home, Sakamoto last February told the restaurant's chef of his irritation at having to listen to terrible background music during his meals. The problem was not so much the high volume as what he considered to be a haphazard selection. The artist therefore offered to curate it himself, free of charge, simply to feel comfortable. With his request accepted, the maestro created a playlist for the restaurant, and from that moment it became its soundtrack.

The curious episode, which only came to light this summer thanks to a report in the New York Times, occurred on an evening when Sakamoto, tired of having to endure background music (background or elevator music) that mixes "bad Brazilian pop, old American folk and some jazz like Miles Davis", got up from the table and went home. He wrote a fiery email to chef Odo saying:

I love your food, I respect you and I adore this restaurant, but I cannot stand the music you play. Who chose it? Who decided to put together such a jumble? Let me take care of it. Because your food is as good as the Katsura Imperial Villa is beautiful (a centuries-old palace in Kyoto, ed.), while your restaurant's music sounds like something from Trump Tower

The restaurant playlist

In Sakamoto's musical selection, in which none of his own compositions appear, New York-based producer, manager and curator Ryu Takahashi also had a hand. From the chosen tracks, which capture the attention while remaining discreet and minimalist, emerge piano solos and electronic sounds spanning contemporary classical and ambient, with flashes of jazz and improvisation, by artists such as the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, Nils Frahm, Max Richter and Chilly Gonzales, but also Nicolas Jaar, Oneohtrix Point Never and Aphex Twin through to John Cage and Thelonious Monk.

Jazz pianists are a complex subject for Sakamoto, not least because "jazz at a restaurant is too stereotyped", as he explains to the NYT. The former member of the electropop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra made at least five versions before arriving at the definitive Kajitsu playlist. "At first I wanted to put together a collection of ambient music, not Brian Eno but something more recent." He and his wife Norika Sora tested them at the restaurant, taking into account the entire environment and style of the room, from the colour of the walls to the material of the furniture, which were not suited to music with sombre tones to be listened to at the end of an evening.

Ryuichi Sakamoto has composed and produced music for dancing, for orchestra, films, video games and ringtones, but also for environmental and political awareness initiatives, as the recent documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda by Stephen Nomura Schible, dedicated to him, explains. It is not the first time he has created a soundtrack for a public space, but he had never before created playlists using other people's music — except for his family members.