Firstly, for those of you who aren't in the know, a little bit of information about both artists.
Alva Noto is a one of the pseudonyms of
Carsten Nicolai.
Nicolai is one of the founders of the record label
raster-noton, the other being
Olaf Bender (
Byetone) who's music can also be found released through the same label. You will find the link for
raster-noton at the bottom of this post.
As
Alva Noto,
Nicolai has written (in my opinion) a couple of the most iconic glitch electronica albums in the field,
Unitxt (2008) and
Univrs (2011). These albums are drenched with extreme glitch beats and, especially noticeable on the latter release
Univrs, long drones that immerse the listener into an incredible soundscape that you will never forget.
Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of the most iconic pianists in modern music and has won awards in the process of becoming so. He has become known the world over for his crossing over between musical and technological boundaries. He is probably best known for his track
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence which you will no doubt recognise from somewhere. As well as doing collaborations between himself and
Alva Noto, he has also done collaborations with numerous others, including
Fennesz. He is one of the founding members of
Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978-1984, 1993-1993, 2007-present) along with
Haruomi Hosono and
Yukihiro Takahashi. The
YMO as they are often abbreviated to, are a strong influence on many artists within the experimental electronic genre to this day.
Together,
Alva Noto and
Ryuichi Sakamoto have released the
VIRUS boxset of albums.
Vrioon, the first album by the duo was released in (2002), and was followed up with
Insen (2005),
Revep (2006),
utp_(With
Ensemble Modern) (2008) and their latest release
Summvs (2011). This group of albums is an absolute master class in how to mix the acoustic piano with glitch electronica, feedback, drones and live manipulation. The live performance's that the duo performed with
Ensemble Modern to promote their album
utp_ can be found at
Link 2 and I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. An absolute blast of experimental electronica and modern classical music. A link can be found below for the complete
VIRUS collectors boxset.
A quote taken from
raster-noton website, on the creation process between
Alva Noto and
Ryuichi Sakamoto:
"… the material that was given to me was already layered with digital effects. From one little clean piano piece I made the first track. Those simple piano chords I combined with a clear rhythm constellation. … somehow Ryuichi was very surprised and really liked my work. Weeks later he sent me another specially for this project recorded track."
Alva Noto and
Ryuichi Sakamoto's
Virus Collectors Edition Boxset can be bought from the
raster-noton online shop now!
Visit Link 1: http://www.raster-noton.net/
Visit Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nIPyCG8jnw
Visti Link 3: http://www.raster-noton.net/main.php
Ancient Future is the new release from Christopher Willits and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and is another mix of pure piano genius (Sakamoto) and the sometimes chaotic electronic world (Willits). Unlike the collaborations with Alva Noto, this work by Sakamoto doesn't revolve around rhythmic symmetry but rather strays into the ambient and uncomfortable. A sometimes hard to access mix between soft melodies from the piano, feedback and static loops, this can be at times unsettling, but with a name like Ancient Future, the contradictions were always going to take centre stage. The stories from each track could have been individually tailored to each listener, and describe a struggle through life from its delicate beginnings to becoming one with yourself.
