From pop to film scores, electronic to experimental, Ryuichi Sakamoto was one of the most prolific, successful, and influential artists of the past 50 years. Yet his death in March 2023 only slowed—but did not halt—the prodigious recordings of his extensive oeuvre: That same year, Sakamoto released two new songs for the soundtrack of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” contributed piano to a track on the debut studio album of South Korean rapper (and BTS member) Agust D, and, with the help of his son, filmmaker Neo Sora, released “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” a career-spanning final piano performance recorded just a few months earlier.

Following the concert film’s theatrical release in early 2024 and its July premiere on the Criterion Channel, “Opus” will be released as an album on August 9 by Milan Records. The 20-track release features three entirely new compositions by Sakamoto, as well as new arrangements of existing pieces from his nearly 50-year career. Recorded in 2022 in a studio regarded as having some of the best acoustics in Japan, the clarity of the audio feels unmatched—and so does the intimacy.

Sakamoto, then struggling through the final months of his life, severely affected by illness, chose to preserve the iconic melodies that became known around the world, along with the imperfections that occurred while performing them. That includes the pause to reset at the end of “Andata” (from 2018’s “Async”) and his adjustments after making a mistake during “Bibo no Aozora” (which began life as a pop song on 1995’s “Smoochy”). The record doesn’t aim to offer a definitive version of these songs, even the new ones, but to show how his creativity and life experience deepen their melodic and emotional weight while also leaving room for multiple interpretations.

Two original songs, “BB” and “For Jóhann,” exude a unique poignancy in the wake of his own death: both are tributes to friends and collaborators (one to director Bernardo Bertolucci, for whom he scored three films, the other to the late composer Jóhann Johannson). “BB” is unsurprisingly elegant but soulful — contemplative, even mournful, for the late filmmaker he considered a mentor, but never intended to echo any of the scores he contributed to Bertolucci’s work. The latter track, meanwhile, spends six delicate minutes working through a melody that will feel familiar to anyone familiar with Sakamoto’s work, and seems to explore his feelings about Johannson rather than attempt to summarize them.