Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of those rare artists that are both truly creative in everything they do, and incredibly prolific. In 1976, after graduating from Tokyo's University of Art, he formed the quirky and incredibly successful Yellow Magic Orchestra. The band scored a bunch of Kraftwerk- influenced hit songs on the Japanese pop charts before their 1983 breakup.

During their existence, Ryuichi was hard at work on solo career that would quickly distinguish him as one of modern music's true originals. He would go onto create a new musical genre called "neo-geo," pen numerous soundtracks, and collaborate with legends such as David Sylvian, David Byrne, Bootsy Collins, and Iggy Pop.

And he would also go on to release 1998's Discord, which would contain both an extremely innovative interactive program and a brilliant orchestral opus called "Untitled01" with four movements: "Grief," "Anger," "Prayer" and "Salvation."

Luckily for you, we've dug into several small childrens' diaries, looking for passages that would encapsulate the intense emotional craziness Sakamoto expresses on Discord, and have settled on an anonymous kid's four- day long struggle to come to grips with the death of his cat, Paco.

Friday, June 12, 1998: Grief

Dear Diary,

Today Paco died. Mom and dad say it was his time, but I don't know. He wasn't that old. I mean, when I get to be 14 years old, I'll still be just a kid, but for a cat I guess that's supposed to be real old. It's not fair. I had him ever since I was born. I cried all day.

Saturday, June 13, 1998: Anger

Dear Diary,

I hate death! I hate everything! Why did God have to take away Paco? I hate God! God is supposed to do good things and have there be peace on Earth and all that stuff, but how am I supposed to be peaceful when I my cat died? I mean, Paco was so good. He was so good, and now he's dead 'cause old God wanted him for himself. I guess Paco was too good to live! This is a crappy summer already.

Sunday, June 14, 1998: Prayer

Dear Diary,

Sorry for all the mean things I said about God yesterday. He's good and holy. And Mom saw my diary and grounded me and said I had to apologize, so I'm doing it. I hope that Paco is up there with God feeling happy to be in heaven. I'm feeling better, but I really miss him. I wish he could be alive, but I know that nothing can live forever. Even me, and that makes me sad. At least I don't have to go to school tomorrow. Amen.

Monday, June 15, 1998: Salvation

Dear Diary,

Guess what. Today, I was walking home from Steve's and there was this cat in the road with a broke foot. I don't know how that happened. Anyway, I got over to him and you should have seen him! He was so helpless and gross. Anyway, I went and picked him up and was walking home petting him and being careful with his foot and this big truck came and rolled over where he was before I got him. I guess I saved his life. I brought him home and he's laying by me now. I named him Panzer Dragoon after my favorite video game. He's a great cat. But he'll never be as good as Paco.

-Ryan Schreiber