In this month's special collection of Echoes Living Room Concerts we sit down at the ivories with five Echoes favorites.

Ryuichi Sakamoto Ryuichi Sakamoto is a musical enigma. He came to renown in the 1970s as part of the synthesizer band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and released a series of acclaimed solo albums in the 1980s. His film scores include The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky. In the 90s, he collaborated with Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson and David Byrne, scored dissonant electro-acoustic symphonies and totally kitschy pop. When we met up with Sakamoto in 2000, he had just released 2 new discs: CINEMAGE, orchestral renderings of his film scores, and BTTB, or BACK TO THE BASICS, a solo piano album. BTTB includes a song that started out as a commercial jingle and wound up a number one hit in Japan. Ryuichi Sakamoto sat down at the piano, offered some solo versions of his music, and talked about his strange world. listen>> (approx 28 min)	Ryuichi Sakamoto
Suzanne Ciani	Suzanne Ciani Formerly one of the queens of new age synthesis and advertising music, Suzanne Ciani has in recent years devoted herself exclusively to the solo piano. In May, 1990, she invited a small circle of friends to her Manhattan apartment for an elegant evening of music for acoustic piano and synthesizers, that included music from her albums VELOCITY OF LOVE, NEVERLAND and HISTORY OF MY HEART. listen>> (approx 52 min)
Liz Story In June, 1998, Liz Story visited the Echoes Living room for a performance of her evocative works for piano. On her album released that year, 17 SECONDS TO ANYWHERE (Windham Hill), Story returned to recording her own compositions, introspective works that make her rise high above the pantheon of solo pianists. listen>> (approx 22 min)	Liz Story
Harold Budd	Harold Budd A live performance by Harold Budd is a rare event. This early architect of ambience explores a world of unrestrained melancholy and music he intends to be "devastatingly beautiful." His PLATEAUX OF MIRROR album, recorded with Brian Eno, is a landmark of ambient music. In 2001, Budd continued his ruminations on his CD THE ROOM. A musician usually heard in electronic settings, we captured him in a purely acoustic performance, playing with a touch that producer Daniel Lanois says is like "playing feathers on the piano." listen>> (approx 28 min)
Christopher O'Riley Christopher O'Riley is a noted classical concert pianist as well as the host of Public Radio International's FROM THE TOP radio program. You'll usually hear him playing Scriabin and Mozart, but on his new album, he plays the music of Radiohead, the critically acclaimed English art rock group. O'Riley started playing this music on piano during breaks on FROM THE TOP and wound up with an album's worth of material, now called TRUE LOVE WAITS: CHRISTOPHER O'RILEY PLAYS THE MUSIC OF RADIOHEAD. Christopher comes into the Echoes Living Room to play live. listen>> (approx 28 min)	Christopher O'Riley & John Diliberto