In 2014 he was diagnosed with throat cancer. A year later, last August, Ryuichi Sakamoto announced on his website that he was "in great shape". And so, while temporarily leaving the demands of live touring behind him, the Japanese composer, artist and intellectual set back to work to compose the music for Yoji Yamada's "Haha to Kuraseba (Living With My Mother)" and, above all, to create the soundtrack for Alejandro González Iñárritu's new film, "Revenant – Redivivo".

The thriller stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson. Based on Michael Punke's novel, partially inspired by the real events surrounding Hugh Glass, "Revenant – Redivivo" is the story of an explorer who is robbed and abandoned by his hunting team after being attacked by a bear. The film will be released in cinemas on Christmas Day, while in Italy it will arrive on 28 January 2016.

Ryuichi Sakamoto, regarded as a contemporary genius as well as a political activist, pacifist and environmentalist, has created, among his countless works and collaborations, the soundtracks for "L'ultimo imperatore" (with which he won the Oscar), "Piccolo Buddha" and "Il tè nel deserto" by Bernardo Bertolucci. It comes as no surprise, then, that he was recruited by Iñárritu, the acclaimed Mexican filmmaker who himself won three Academy Awards for "Birdman". To score the film, Sakamoto also enlisted The National guitarist Bryce Dessner and German artist and composer Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai), with whom he has already released four albums on the Raster-Noton label.