World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)

In 2002 Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi joined forces to form a new duo outfit which they dubbed Sketch Show. It was a surprise move that delighted fans of Yellow Magic Orchestra. In particular, the project tempted Hosono back into pop territory that he had rarely inhabited since the intense but relatively brief YMO heyday from their 1978 eponymous debut to 1983’s Service.

Sketch Show’s debut release, Audio Sponge, saw all three former YMO members reunited, Ryuichi Sakamoto guesting on the songs ‘Wonderful to Me’ and ‘Supreme Secret’ and co-composing those tracks with his former bandmates.

A mini-album followed hot on the heels of the debut disc. Tronika came out in Japan early in 2003 and later that year received a glowing review in The Wire from Clive Bell, who would himself go on to collaborate with David Sylvian for the installation piece When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima and as part of Twinkle³. ‘Hosono says he was seduced back into songwriting by Takahashi,’ wrote Bell. ‘An invitation to Hosono to produce a solo album by Takahashi was seized upon by Japanese fans as evidence of fresh collaboration, whereupon the two of them resolved to form a new group called Sketch Show. A sell-out tour of Japan last year has been followed by appearances this summer at Barcelona’s Sonar and London’s Cybersonica, which represent Hosono’s first touring outside Japan for 22 years.

‘Hosono and Takahashi have now produced a mini-album of four songs – each one a lovingly crafted item of sonic jewellery, encrusted with glittering glitches and digital diamonds…This is exquisite and sophisticated music, combining traditional instruments and electronics in a glassy but classy suspension. Sketch Show, their fingers on the pulse, have come up with the musical embodiment of the Japanese dream: that heady illusion of perfect harmony between human and synthetic.’ Where YMO had explored the boundaries of what emerging synthesiser technology could bring to pop, Sketch Show now experimented with loops of computer-processed sound.

When Ryuichi Sakamoto was invited to create music for Tokyo commercial radio station J-Wave’s 15th Anniversary that same year, it was not surprising that he sought to involve Sketch Show. David Sylvian was also invited, calling on another longtime connection.

‘I’d work with Ryuichi anytime,’ said Sylvian. ‘It’s a great relationship. It’s one of these collaborations that go on regardless of the fact that we never really have any future plans to work with one another. When a collaboration ends there is no talk of the next, but somehow the ball keeps rolling and it remains interesting. Funnily enough, a connection seems to occur at pivotal points in either one of our developments I think.’

Sakamoto was keen to join forces to voice opposition to the prevailing political direction. ‘Ryuichi asked me if I’d write a song about the Bush administration’s response to Iraq and to the events of 9/11,’ said Sylvian. ‘I’ve never seen myself as a political writer in the traditional sense of the word. This was the second time in as many years that Ryuichi had asked me to get involved in something as a writer that was overtly political. The first time was a piece we did in protest against landmines. [Read more here]

‘My first response was to refuse. It was too big an issue to cover and I felt I was the wrong person for the job. But after a couple of weeks the idea for ‘World Citizen’ came to mind and I wrote the piece very quickly in one short sitting. I sent a demo of the piece to Ryuichi. I basically felt that there were no audible voices of dissent in American culture towards the oncoming war – there were, of course, but they were generally suppressed, blacked out.’ (2007)

Sylvian’s initial reluctance had given way to a forthright denouncement of various social injustices, the explicit nature of the lyric taking Sakamoto somewhat aback – to such an extent that he wasn’t sure the material was right for the commission at hand. ‘I’m not an overtly political lyricist by any means but I believed if you’re going to write an anti-war song there’s no point in mincing words,’ Sylvian would later reflect.

‘A few days later Ryuichi said that he liked the concept of ‘World Citizen’ and wondered if we couldn’t write a more pop orientated piece with the same title.’ Sylvian remembers that at some stage in the process, ‘he sent me a pop song by Yukihiro as a suggestion for a possible direction. I didn’t dislike the song but responded, “Aren’t we a little old to be writing this kind of material?”’

‘After a few false starts Ryu sent a loop of a sampled piano.’ It was a mere sketch comprising a ‘very simple clipped piano ping-ponging left to right in the stereo field with a subtle synth pad underneath, nothing more.’ But that was enough to spark the imagination.

Sylvian: ‘I’ve found that, as years have gone on, and in the absence of a permanent band with which to work, he becomes maybe the closest collaborator in that we share a common musical vocabulary. That’s so important, I think. To move beyond one’s limitations to develop that vocabulary over a length of time, I think that is what I miss about working within a group. Ryuichi and I rarely use language to point one another in a given direction. We’ll play our work to one another, and, immediately, there’s a connection and we go with it.’

And such was the case with Ryuichi’s piano loop, ‘I recall writing the lyrics on a drive from New Hampshire to New York, everything scrawled on the back of an envelope. When I returned home I sang the lead vocal and sent it to Ryuichi.’

The original ‘World Citizen’ explicitly railed against a world view in which American lives are valued above all other and where the historic rights of native peoples were ridden over rough-shod in the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam. For the sister-piece, ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’, there are fewer precise references, but the imagery is nevertheless powerful in depicting a world where the fundamentals have gone awry.

‘What happened here?
The butterfly has lost its wings
The air’s too thick to breathe
And there’s something in the drinking water.’

There’s a citation of the canary in the coal mine, birds used to test for the lethal presence of carbon monoxide in underground mine-shafts: an early warning of dangers that were unseen but all too real.

‘It’s not safe
All the yellow birds are sleeping
Cos the air’s not fit for breathing
It’s not safe’

Sylvian humanises what are global issues by taking the perspectives of specific individuals. A lone driver is dwarfed among the masses using Californian highway 101 and its complicated intersection struggling to cope with the weight of human traffic transiting between routes at peak times…

‘The sun comes up
The sun comes up and you’re alone
Your sense of purpose come undone
The traffic tails back to the maze on 101‘

Compassion comes through taking the time to understand each person’s plight.

‘And if I stop
And talk with you awhile
I’m overwhelmed by the scale
Of everything you feel
The lonely inner state emergency

I want to feel
Until my heart can take no more
And there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t give

I want to break
The indifference of the days
I want a conscience that will keep me wide awake’

The cover illustration for the Japanese ep shows a globe where the land mass is represented by plants with vibrant foliage bursting into flower. There’s a longing to travel expressed in the song, fuelled by a drive to understand the reality of what’s happening in the world, to be a true ‘world citizen’:

‘I want to travel by night
Across the steppes and over seas
I want to understand the cost
Of everything that’s lost
I want to pronounce all their names correctly’

If only the artificial borders between nations could be stripped away, the barriers to living as one people on this planet might fall away.

‘Why can’t we be
Without beginning, without end?
Why can’t we be?

World citizen’

The song’s sub-title seems to be a determined declaration not to be defeated in pursuing this route to humanity and justice.

‘I won’t be disappointed’

The only hope is to be found in restoring the balance of nature. ‘Looked at from another level, we are in a period where destruction is inevitable, both man made and natural,’ Sylvian would reflect a couple of years later. ‘It has been predicted for a long time. In Hinduism, it is known as the Kali Yuga.

‘If the man-made doesn’t overwhelm us with fear and the natural renews our sense of humanity, maybe we can come through it.’ (2005)

Once Ryuichi had received Sylvian’s words and vocal melody, ‘he passed them on to Harumi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi (Sketch Show) who made valuable contributions to the piece,’ explained Sylvian.

Listening to ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ in the context of the Sketch Show recordings it’s easy to identify the characteristics that Clive Bell had celebrated in his piece for The Wire. The track bursts with glitches, sounds both pure and mysterious, a crackling rhythm, and a deep rumble of a bass-line.

Sakamoto did ultimately warm to Sylvian’s outspoken original ‘World Citizen’, the pair recording it in New York with Skúli Sverrisson, Amedeo Pace (from Blonde Redhead) and Steve Jansen. The pop-oriented alternative track, ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ was performed by Sylvian, Sakamoto and Sketch Show, effectively YMO plus Sylvian, a unique line-up indeed. Once Sketch Show had done their work, ‘Ryuichi returned to the composition…making a connection with the song, completing it with rhythm, melody and producing the final mix.’

The October 2003 release of the ep bearing both tracks (in various versions) pre-dated Sketch Show’s final studio album, Loophole, by only a matter of weeks. For my playlist I surround ‘…I Won’t Be Disappointed’ with ‘Ohotzka’ from Tronika and ‘Attention Tokyo’ from Loophole. On the latter Takahashi and Hosono are again joined by their erstwhile band-mate Sakamoto.

Ryuichi returned to the song a number of times over the coming months and years, which provides the opportunity to explore the different versions in their various contexts. Firstly, the track appeared on Sakamoto’s subsequent solo album, Chasm, in 2004. The version here is titled ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed) – looped piano’, no doubt being closer to the roots of the composition in that simple piano loop to which Sylvian had responded. Certainly the piano and vocal take centre stage in the absence of the computer-generated rhythms from the originally released version. In a 2023 interview Sylvian said he felt the Chasm mix was ‘the strongest’. Additional contributions for this version come from Keigo Oyamada, aka Cornelius, adding additional textures from his digital DJ equipment, and – somewhere in there – is electric guitar from Amedeo Pace. Oyamada had been an active collaborator with Sketch Show, contributing remixes to the track-listings of both Tronika and Loophole.

A fitting accompaniment to this version is ‘War and Peace’ from Chasm, with Sketch Show credited as programmers. It’s another piece borne from disquiet concerning the world order and an apparently insatiable appetite for conflict, albeit this is expressed indirectly in the form of questions posed by voices from around the world, rather than through explicit commentary or condemnation.

‘Is war as old as gravity?’

‘Is making war an instinct we inherited from our hunting and farming ancestors?’

‘Do we do the right thing without thinking?’

‘Why do they compare war to a man and peace to a woman?’

In 2005 Sakamoto undertook a short series of live dates in Japan from 24 July to 1 August, taking in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The performances were notable for the musicians in the live band, with Ryuichi joined by Christian Fennesz on guitar and computer programming, Steve Jansen on drums, percussion, and computer programming, Skúli Sverrisson on bass, and Keigo Oyamada/Cornelius on guitar. The set in Tokyo on 26 July was captured for broadcast on NHK. Whilst Sylvian was not present to sing live for ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’, it’s a pleasure to hear his recorded voice set in a new arrangement, especially when Jansen kicks the drum kit into action accompanied by exuberant lead guitar.

Sakamoto Live in Japan 2005, live performance of ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ with Keigo Oyamada, Skúli Sverrisson, Steve Jansen and Christian Fennesz.

Each of the musicians in the tour band was among the cast of artists invited to reimagine a track from Chasm for the remix album Bricolages released in 2006. Steve Jansen took on ‘Break With’, the original an hypnotic soup of degraded radio voices and traditional instruments melded together by Sakamoto alone. This was Jansen’s turn to interpret the track through the lens of the computer rhythm design techniques he had been honing during this period, as evidenced on the Nine Horses album Snow Borne Sorrow and his own solo debut, Slope.

Steve’s take on ‘Break With’ makes a suitable companion to the Taylor Deupree remix of ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ included on Bricolages. Like Sakamoto, Deupree was New York based, an established sound artist running his own 12k label with a rarified ambient aesthetic. ‘Ryuichi asked me to pick a track from his new album Chasm to remix,’ he explained at the time, having no hesitation to select the Sylvian vocal track as the one to work on. The finished rendition is worth seeking out for the delicious stepped bass part that is added to the original.

The assignment was the start of a working relationship between Sakamoto and Deupree that would later forge the joint album Disappearance, released on 12k in 2013, and a live album recorded at St-John-at-Hackney Church in London in 2014. Before either of those were issued, Deupree and Sakamoto took part in sessions for Sylvian in New York in May 2012, joined by Tom Verlaine and Otomo Yoshihide, producing work that Sylvian has said is release-worthy (if at the time uncompleted) but has yet to see the light of day. Deupree was commissioned in 2013 to provide music for Sylvian’s photographic exhibitions Abandon/Hope staged in Japan, specifically for the Hope installation in an abandoned building located in the port town of Uno as part of the Setouchi International Art festival. Sylvian invited Deupree to create long-form pieces that were presented on a portable playback ‘button’ for visitors to listen to while they walked around the festival. 

‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’

Ryuichi Sakamoto – keyboards, sound programming; Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi as Sketch Show – sound programming; David Sylvian – vocals

Music by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lyrics by David Sylvian.

Produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto. From World Citizen by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto, Warner Music Japan, 2003. Re-released on samadhisound, 2004.

Recorded at samadhi sound New Hampshire/kab studio New York/Right Track recording studio a-509, New York

Lyrics © samadhisound publishing

‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ – official YouTube link. It is highly recommended to listen to this music via physical media or lossless digital file. If you are able to, please support the artists by purchasing rather than streaming music.

‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed) – looped piano’

Amedeo Pace – electric guitar; Keigo Oyamada – CDJ-800; Ryuichi Sakamoto – keyboards, sound programming; Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi as Sketch Show – sound programming; David Sylvian – vocals.

Music by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lyrics by David Sylvian.

Produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto. From Chasm by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Warner Music Japan, 2004.

Lyrics © samadhisound publishing

‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed) – looped piano’ – official YouTube link. It is highly recommended to listen to this music via physical media or lossless digital file. If you are able to, please support the artists by purchasing rather than streaming music.

‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed) – live’

Christian Fennesz – guitar, computer programming; Steve Jansen – drums, percussion, computer programming; Keigo Oyamada – guitar, effects; Ryuichi Sakamoto – piano, keyboards, computer programming; Skúli Sverrisson – bass guitar

David Sylvian vocal from the studio recording

Music by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lyrics by David Sylvian.

From Japan Tour 2005 broadcast by NHK, recorded 26 July 2005, Zepp, Tokyo

Lyrics © samadhisound publishing

‘World Citizen – Taylor Deupree remix’

Ryuichi Sakamoto – keyboards, sound programming; Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi as Sketch Show – sound programming; David Sylvian – vocals

Taylor Deupree – remix

Music by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lyrics by David Sylvian.

Produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto. From Bricolages by Ryuichi Sakamoto, KAB America, 2006

Lyrics © samadhisound publishing

‘World Citizen – Taylor Deupree remix’ – official YouTube link. It is highly recommended to listen to this music via physical media or lossless digital file. If you are able to, please support the artists by purchasing rather than streaming music.

David Sylvian quotes are from interviews in 2003 and comments in a 2023 interview for a Ryuichi Sakamoto memorial publication issued by ele-king in 2023, unless otherwise noted. Full sources and acknowledgements for this article can be found here.

Hildur Guðnadóttir re-imagined ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ for the album A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto – To the Moon and Back, a celebration to mark Sakamoto’s 70th birthday. Read more about this and Sylvian’s reinterpretation of ‘Grains’ by Sakamoto & Alva Noto for the same album here.

Taylor Deupree’s music for David Sylvian’s Abandon/Hope photography project has been released digitally on bandcamp as The Inland Sea here.

Download links: ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’ (Apple); ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed) – looped piano’ (Apple); ‘World Citizen – Taylor Deupree remix’ (Apple); ‘Ohotzka’ (Apple); ‘Attention Tokyo’ (Apple); ‘War and Peace’ (Apple); ‘Break With’ – Steve Jansen remix (Apple)

Physical media: Sleepwalkers (Grönland); Tronika (Far Side); Loophole (Far Side); Chasm (discogs); Bricolages (discogs)

‘Ryuichi sent me a one note piano loop and I wrote a new piece to that, which he then sent off to the ex-members of YMO, who are currently working under the name, Sketch Show. They made a big contribution to the track and Ryuichi finally finished up the piece himself. So, that piece is called ‘World Citizen (I Won’t Be Disappointed)’.’ David Sylvian, 2003

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