Watching a Ryuchi Sakamoto performance of async, and it’s almost magical watching him work. The lightness, the near trepidation he seemed to feel when playing the pianissimo accents of the opening, as though he might land just a little too hard on one of the keys and ruin everything for a lack of sensitivity. He touches the keys, but just. A whispered note. Beautiful. The opening credits, a simple black background with his name in white, appear on screen. Soon he begins looping. And the opening, haunting keys linger as organ sounds underneath the electronic soundscape Sakamoto takes such delight in creating. Everything he does is so physical. He leans over the piano with a guitar slide, and makes the most haunting sounds.