In 2016, Sakamoto was battling cancer, putting off all of his many musical projects. But his cinephilia was such that he couldn’t say no when director Alejandro G. Iñárritu asked him to score his film The Revenant. Sakamoto’s arrangements are augmented by Alva Noto’s minimal campfire crackle and larger orchestrations from Bryce Dessner of The National. Sakamoto’s strength is his brevity, conveying in minute-long cues and motifs all the natural beauty and brutality of the frozen landscape. It’s one of Sakamoto’s late career highlights.