// VIRUS Boxset Release by Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto

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