"The celebrated composer is back from a recent health scare with his first solo album in eight years, and it's a dark, eerie, ethereal beauty ... It's hard to say if the songs on async are a direct or indirect reflection of his recent health scares-it's tempting to overanalyze music created in the aftermath of such events-or if this is simply a real soundtrack to an imaginary film. Whatever the case, Ryuichi Sakamoto is back and shows no signs of being boring or predictable. For this, we should all be thankful".