Ghostly drones engulfed the space with a fog that was at once eerie and calming, layered over with Noto’s glitchy beats and Sakamoto’s meandering piano refrains. With a minimalist beginning of scrapes and sounds, the hall felt pregnant with silence, creating a hyper-awareness of rustles and noise from the audience until the ambient loops kicked in. Though this performance wasn’t as site-specific as, say, Glass which was created using Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House as an instrument, a dialogue between sound and environment naturally weaved into the pair’s musical conversation. Two illuminated figures against a background of wavering lines and shapes, the live improvisation began Sakamoto’s hair beaming white and Noto’s tailored suit cutting a dark, angular figure on stage. As the pair walked onto the stage, no words were spoken. A live performance of precision and careful balance, the two artists demonstrated their clear mastery of restraint, inhabiting a dichotomous space between tension and calm. A live recording, Glass, was released this year and a string of improvised shows announced for the Funkhaus, Sónar Barcelona and now, the Barbican.Įntitled Two, the show brought close listening to the cultural centre in the UK capital. At the time, it was intended to be their last studio effort together but after reuniting for the sweeping score to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film The Revenant in 2015, it became clear the two pioneering artists, together, still had more to say. The resulting creative interplay makes for beautiful, rewarding music which only gradually reveals its subtleties.Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto released their fifth collaborative album summvs in 2011.
Later, the piano's surging conviction is undercut by subtle percussive glitches which suggest a delicate but troubling dysfunction which prompts examination of the cd player to ensure the counter is passing in regular time. At times, as on "Logic Moon" - the piano becomes so enswathed in its own gossamer-thin feedback that it seems to disappear like a receding, fog-bound figure. However, the association proves to be a mutable one. Such is the sympathy of these elements that, moment by moment, the sense of a remarkably unified form is created. At the same time, echoing electronic streams and trembling resonances complement the pianist's performance. On "Morning" he prods rising arpeggios gently as if afraid they might shatter. On "Aurora" notes are sustained and released as if Sakamoto were bidding a final, unwilling farewell to each one. The air-borne reverberations of the acoustic piano combine, impact and dissolve with digital loops, prods and waverings.
If each part of the marriage were isolated into constituent parts, they might prove too clinical or precious, but together a delicate vibrancy is created. This relationship lies at the core of Insen and continues Vrioon's cool melancholia in subtler, even more streamlined fashion. Both explore the potential for interaction and tension between electronic and acoustic instrumentation, the latter taking form in Sakamoto's piano. Both represent something of a departure from the ascetic bent of their peers. Insen is heir to Vrioon (2003), Alva Noto's collaboration with Japanese multi-instrumentalist Ryuichi Sakamoto. The roots of much of its output, together with its frequently attractive packaging, might be traced as much to fine art movements like Minimalism and Suprematism as the musical futurism of Detroit techno or Kraftwerk's negotiation of the man/machine interface. The label releases a spectrum of electronica that ranges from abstract to ultra-minimal. Alva Noto is the operating alias of Carsten Nicolai, who, together with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, form the musical triumvirate that is Raster Noton Archiv Für Ton Und Nichtton.
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