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0/r is the collaborative project between sound artists Nosei Sakata (*0) and Richard Chartier. 0/r recorded two critically acclaimed full length compact discs for 12k: “0/r” (12k1006, 1999) and “Varied” (12k1018, 2002 ). While 0/r suggested a sense of chaos with its jarring and syncopated digital sound, Varied utilizes much more refined compositional techniques to create highly deliberate passages of whispering sine waves, extreme frequencies, and looping rhythms of noise and detailed sonic pops.
This collaboration between Mika Vainio and Carsten Nicolai dates back to 1997, and it’s bizarre to think that almost ten years have elapsed since this was first unleashed on the world. Sounding every bit as relevant a piece of electronic experimentation as it did back then, the four tracks here occupy some of the purest, most minimal territory the two artists have traversed over the years. Conceived as part of an installation to be exhibited simultaneously in Germany, Finland and Poland, the inspiration behind this music comes from magnetspintomograph and radiotelescope recordings of pulsars. Consequently, the music here is beautifully elemental, comprising Vainio’s sustained tones and Noto’s sophisticated clicks + cuts grid forms. There’s a purity to this record that harks back to the very genesis of electronic music, yet it still sounds timelessly essential today. Highly recommended. (boomkat.com)
01 0/r: “Trackb” (from “0/the/r”) (2006)
02 0/r: “Untitled..” (from “0/the/r”) (2006)
03 0/r: “[untitled]” (from “0/the/r”) (2006)
04 Ø + Noto (Mika Vainio & Carsten Nicolai): “Ø + NOTO : 01″ (from “Mikro Makro”) (1997)
05 Ø + Noto (Mika Vainio & Carsten Nicolai): “Ø + NOTO : 02″ (from “Mikro Makro”) (1997)
06 Ø + Noto (Mika Vainio & Carsten Nicolai): “Ø + NOTO : 03″ (from “Mikro Makro”) (1997)
 Spellewauerynsherde: Spell. Wavering. Shard. Spell as in speaking, incantation, a digitally constructed matrix of words and voices, summoning up a strange, distant past. Wavering: the shivering of those voices as they dissolve and recombine in Rabelais’ rich filtering systems, turning into pulsating, frequency rich drones. Shard: fragments, of voices, of ideas, of memories, of the past, brought back to life again.
Spellewauerynsherde is built up from found sounds, field recordings of traditional Icelandic accapella lament songs recorded in the late 1960s or early 1970s on Ampex tapes and then forgotten about. After discovering the neglected tapes, cleaning them up and digitizing them for a library, Rabelais became fascinated with the heartbreaking sadness of the voices and began to think of them as source material for a series of compositions.
In working with the tapes, Rabelais was very careful to preserve the sound and shape of the originals giving some of the tracks, such as the lovely track 5, an almost Duchamp-like sound quality — they sound barely touched, hardly compositions at all by most people’s standards. “I didn’t want to abstract it so much that it lost its essential quality. I didn’t want to damage the fabric of the original language, I wanted to set it, cast it in a certain light.”
The frame that Rabelais uses was constructed using a piece of computer software called Arge•phontes Lyre, which Rabelais developed in the late 1990s – a flexible tool for filtering sound sources, turning them into the remarkable pulsating, shifting sound fields and strange choral effects to be heard on Spellewauerynsherde’s track three for example. In contrast to much of the contemporary electronic music scene, which remains heavily dependent on commercially available software, and which mostly consists of running through every possible combination of the potentialities within such software, resulting in a glut of music that is basically indistinguishable from each other, Rabelais has worked continuously on developing software that can achieve his various sonic goals. “I tend to write filters as I need them and they go through quite a bit of fine tuning. At the same time I try to let them evolve organically. I try to appreciate my mistakes.”
Even though Rabelais’ use of the software has an iterative, mathematical aspect, in that it can be used to crank out numerous mutant variations on a particular block of sound, he claims that he sees writing software as similar to writing poetry. “I have a sort of Magical Realist approach to writing code. Borges, Garcia M‡rquez and Bruno Shculz. Labyrinths, a cascade of stars and tailor’s dummies. Code can intersect with function and abstraction in a way that poetry can’t. It can take on a life of it’s own, really surprise you.”
Rabelais then decided to throw his own unconscious as a tool into the mix: “When I was working on it, I would do an iteration of filtering and editing and then I’d burn it on a disk and play it. Put it on repeat in my bedroom for a weekend and sleep to it. Let it seep into my subconscious and then make changes off of those impressions.”
If the tracks on Spellewauerynsherde are ultimately built around the complexities of digital programming, the framework of title and text that Rabelais gives the music is equally important and transformative. In fact, Rabelais says that he worked simultaneously on the editing and processing of the sounds, and the extraordinary texts that accompany the music, as well as the seven long, mysterious track titles, drawn mostly from the Oxford English Dictionary’s definitions of the words that make up the title of the piece. “The OED is one of my favorite books. It’s interesting how words and meaning evolve over time. It’s like a secret natural history of human thought.”
What Rabelais has come up with in Spellewauerynsherde, is a haunting spiritual disk that sounds at once medieval, especially framed by Rabelais’ beautiful texts, while at the same time, on the cutting edge of electronic music. Digital technologies, with their use of permutation and combination of seemingly unrelated elements, bring us back to the world of magic, which also sought to transform matter in ways that give it spiritual significance. Spellewauerynsherde brings back voices from the edges of history, tapes gathering dust in archives, and transforms them into ghosts that thrive in the digital era, albeit in sometimes monstrous forms. “I transmit, “As above, so below.” I try to connect to something ineffable and then transmit it in some way.” (samadhisound.com)
 Bell ringer: Vladimir Petrovsky . Bells of the Arkhangelsk museum reserve “‘Malyie Karely” (Small Karely).
Bells in Russia appeared soon after Christianisation. For already a millennium their chimes accompany every person’s life. Bells were not a Christian Church invention, they came from the West, first as a signal, but already at the beginning of the 16th century Russia had its own national original art of bell ringing. The main expressive means of these chimes are rhythm and timbre. Rhythmical variety of sounding is reached by the new way of bell ringing – not by moving the bell itself, as in European countries – but by moving the tongue of motionless bells. The fate of Russian bells is tragic. They were silent almost for about half of century. One of the contemporary centres of bell ringing revival is the Arkhangelsk museum reserve of wooden architecture “Malyie Rarely”. Here in the Russian North – a real treasury-house of national culture “Chimes of Russian North” were revived. These chimes are characteristic variety of All-Russian chimes. This museum is the only place in Russia where a school of bell ringers is situated. Vladimir Petrovsky is a bright representative of this school. He is a professional musician for whom the tradition is a basis, both in musical and moral aspects. He can really hear and feel the soul of a bell. The compositions featured on this disc show the listeners his careful attitude to the old Russian heritage and gift of free improvisation. The latter feature you can see more vividly in his performance of “Waltz of Bells”, “Monk’s Tale”, “Delusion”. In this chime Petrovsky affirms his own understanding of contemporary bell ringing as a concert genre.
01 Akira Rabelais: “1671 Milton Samson 1122 Add thy Spear, a Weavers beam, and seven-times-folded shield” (from “Spellewauerynsherde”) (2004)
02 Vladimir Petrovsky: “Funeral Chime” (from “Chimes of Russian North”) (1991)
 Music for Civic Recovery Centre is an ambient Installation album from British musician Brian Eno, released in 2000. An Opal release, with no catalogue number, this title is only available from EnoShop.
The music on the album is taken from an Installation – a show featuring music and visuals – that took place at the Sonic Boom exhibition of the Hayward Gallery, London, in April-June 2000. The event, featuring over 30 other artists, was curated by David Toop.
Part of Eno’s Quiet Club series of Installations, it combined 12 audio elements with 10 visual light-sculpture generative elements, which was, itself, part of a series of multi-dimensional generative music pieces using asynchronous CD players, carousel projectors and video monitors used in other Installation pieces.
In a conversation with Toop, Eno’s view is of a quiet “recovery area” situated within a city area, a theory which he has spoken of since the mid eighties; a “critically-functioning public space”, a (preferably) darkened room containing large-format screens, lots of CD players and sculptures.
Eno has said of his Installations “I want to make places that feel like music. I want to make things which are like music for the eyes. I want to extend music out into space, into the three dimensions of space, and into colour”.
The album contains only one track, which is based upon, and essentially an extended remix / melding of the tracks Ikebukuro, from his 1992 album The Shutov Assembly and Kites II & Kites III from his 1999 album Kite Stories. The heavily-treated, slowed-down vocals of the Kite Stories part are based on a Japanese ghost-story, Onmyo-Ji, by Reiko Otano and was read by Kyoko Inatome, a waitress from his favorite sushi restaurant. Eno calls this process “composting”: “so many processings and reprocessings – it’s a bit like making soup from the leftovers of the day before, which in turn was made from leftovers…”, “some earlier pieces I worked on became digested by later ones, which in turn became digested again. The technique is like composting: converting what would otherwise have been waste into nourishment”.
01 Brian Eno: “The Quiet Club” (from “Music for the Civic Recovery Centre”, 2000)
 This Alva Noto CD brings together disparate recordings created throughout the last four years, unified under a theme of dedication. All nine studies share the history of being made specifically for someone or for a project that for one reason or another remained open ended.
“wall anfang” for example, opens with a the voice sample “there must be a reason why it is so clear in my mind.” When we realize the person speaking is pioneering contemporary Canadian photographer Jeff Wall, we may understand the rising high tone that introduces the track as the imitation of a photo-flash warming up to be triggered. The track was originally prepared for a documentary about Wall, who became famous for his large scale light boxes that cast white light evenly through his photographs. Like this balanced light, the track presents a purity of thought, that spirals inside and out, the voice of Wall breaking only impartially this conjecture of sound, while adding an atmosphere of introspection and study to the piece.
The percussive, almost marimba like sounds of the track “jr” echo the woodcutting of Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, (whose work Wall allegorized in his photograph A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai),1993). The stark, poised three point intervals of sound bring to mind the intricate and exquisitely considered compositions of Hokusai style of Ukiyo-e pictures of the floating world. Jhonn Balance’s premature death in 2004 gave way to multiple dedications to his life and music by people who took influence from his activities in Coil. The track “odradek” was originally prepared for the tribute record …It Just Is (In Memoriam: Jhonn Balance). Nicolai worked with Balance when commissioning him for the award winning release 20′ to 2000 a CD set for the last 20 minutes of the year 1999.
These diverse engagements come to rest within this release. Like the image that seals the font cover of the CD, that depicts liquid oscillating with various frequencies, we are reminded that sound can give form to image and to thought and that it may continue to resonate in absences, particles, or processes until a point of final closure. (Andrew Cannon, www.alvanoto.de)
1. Alva Noto: “Counter” (2:01) from “For” (2006)
2. Alva Noto: “Transit” (12:40) from “For” (2006)
3. Alva Noto: “Station Remo” (9:20) from “For” (2006)
4. Alva Noto: “Gulf Night” (6:36) from “For” (2006)
5. Alva Noto: “Flashforward” (7:43) from “For” (2006)
6. Alva Noto: “Jr” (4:30) from “For” (2006)
7. Alva Noto: “Odradek” (9:37) from “For” (2006)
8. Alva Noto: “Wall Anfang” (6:25) from “For” (2006)
9. Alva Noto: “Alva Noto.z1″ (6:20) from “For” (2006)
 Alva Noto’s latest venture into the Xerrox series has finally arrived. This time, the dusty tracks of Vol. 1 are shadowed by darkened clouds, and the air has become electrified with higher-voltage static. For instance, track 4 sounds almost as harsh as a droney, hypnotic track from Merzbow’s Electro Magnetic Unit. However, no one can deny Vol. 2′s highly intelligent and often touching musicality. The mood is sombre on many tracks, but Alva Noto expertly seduces the listener by peeling back layers of static to reveal the trademark strings which broke our hearts in Vol. 1. Here they sing different melodies, but the same underlying sorrow permeates the fuzzy atmosphere.
Works by Stephen O’Malley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and even Michael Nyman were sampled and transformed into different creatures by the inimitable expertise of Alva Noto. Who knew that O’Malley’s crushing riffs could generate such haunting sadness (Xerrox Soma)? Who foresaw that Sakamoto’s commercial film score could be mutated into a gentle drone/glitch supernova (Xerrox Sora)? Who counted on feeling the beautiful soul of Fennesz glowing on tracks such as Xerrox Phaser Acat 1?
With its subtle surprises and ‘ear-opening’ ambience, Vol.2 no doubt lives up to its predecessor’s poetic brilliance and edginess. Carsten Nicolai could not have expressed himself any better. Once again, Xerrox has electrified and stunned us into stupendous awe. (Review by FLuViRuS)
01. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Phaser Acat 1″ (12:11) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
02. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Rin” (0:51) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
03. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Soma” (7:11) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
04. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Meta Phaser” (6:23) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
05. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Sora” (6:54) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
06. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Monophaser 1″ (8:04) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
07. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Monophaser 2″ (5:31) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
08. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Teion” (2:03) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
09. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Teion Acat” (5:26) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
10. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Tek Part 1″ (5:28) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
11. Alva Noto: “Xerrox Monophaser 3″ (6:14) from “Xerrox Vol. 2″ (2009)
 Restock. Well, I’ve now had time to absorb what is easily and unequivocally one of the most important releases of 2007 and the more I listen to it the more impressed I am. Not only does ones sense of time become severely dislocated whilst listening to it, but the sheer magnitude of the production is simply breathtaking. I was lucky enough to witness ‘Xerrox’ performed live at the Tate Modern last year and to say that this recording lives up to me expectations is a massive understatement. Carsten Nicolai has taken the seemingly innocuous background noise from various places and locations and transformed them into grainy works of sheer electronic genius with the shorter, fragmented interlude tracks forming natural links to the longer, more sculptural works. Classical, muzak, electronic tones and more are all treated with the greatest of care and once the pieces are in full flow you can expect to be utterly spellbound, awestruck and amazed by this man’s incredibly detailed work. Hyperbole is one thing… this isquite something else. Timeless, brilliant, incredibly atmospheric… say a big hello to one of the greatest Raster releases ever. Highly, highly recommended. (Smallfish Records)
01. Alva Noto: “10-22-38 Astoria” (0:19) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
02. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 4″ (3:53) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
03. Alva Noto: “03-10-06 Astoria” (0:38) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
04. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 3 (Paris)” (11:17) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
05. Alva Noto: “03-10-06 Astoria 2″ (0:36) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
06. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 2 (Airfrance)” (5:07) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
07. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 6″ (6:40) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
08. Alva Noto: “05-10-06 Astoria” (0:22) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
09. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 11″ (3:40) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
10. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 1″ (9:16) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
11. Alva Noto: “02-10-06 Astoria 1″ (0:52) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
12. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 111″ (7:56) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
13. Alva Noto: “09-10-19 Astoria” (0:18) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
14. Alva Noto: “Haliod Xerrox Copy 9″ (11:04) from “Xerrox Vol.1″ (2007)
  
Three simultaneously released EP’s that are really something of a trilogy. Once again, packaged elegantly in fold-out sleeve folders, the size of a greeting card with a practical and clean-line die cut that makes retrieval of the sounds inside at a fingers touch. It’s more physics from Carsten Nicolai, but here there seems to be a greater depth of independence from the pure physics of his linear sound, and a concentration on the asymmetry of pitter-patter microgrooves, following up on his amazing live work. With sixteen tracks in all, Transrapid is the first release in the set and kicking off with “Funkbugfx” couldn’t make the room fill up with warm scattered notes more quickly. It’s like dropping an armful of silverware in space, kling klang, indeed. The sizzling buzz is hotwired. It’s a confident, bass-built sound from the ground up – like some type of free-floating CAD design installation that you are cast into. This is surely one for a full-on surround sound treatment. And when it comes to tracks simply titled “Future” Nicolai doesn’t casually paste faux imagery for the fad expectant, he delves into the coarse innards of every curvilinear angle and turnabout presenting something of an organic architecture tested for stealth ears willing or not to accept the fact that cultural plasticity has outgrown us humans. By including tracks ranging in timing from :16 to 8 minutes+ he knows that even the scraps, the sources, the edits are essential to making sounds that layer together those slices in between matter, finding a rightful home when honed from scratch. Tracks like “F117.Tiff” just propel and sputter with an astute assumed sense of gravity. The sense that what you hear is in the fourth dimension is uncanny. If the original Planet of the Apes film were made so machines took over the planet, rather than chimps, it would sound like some of what is proposed on these new works. With a nod to some the drums and wires of early 80s synth pop, the work expands upon some of the rhythm nation of yore and contracts only every other note, cuts and filters it, adding only essential structures and no frilly fillers. Along with the accompanying esoteric essays written for each of these three discs, Nicolai has composed the most symbiotically formatted work to date. (www.igloomag.com)
01. Alva Noto: “Funkbugfx” (8:29) from “Transrapid” (2004)
02. Alva Noto: “Pulse (XS Version)” (2:32) from “Transrapid” (2004)
03. Alva Noto: “Future” (7:15) from “Transrapid” (2004)
04. Alva Noto: “Highmatrix” (2:21) from “Transrapid” (2004)
05. Alva Noto: “Remodel” (5:33) from “Transvision” (2005)
06. Alva Noto: “J” (5:52) from “Transvision” (2005)
07. Alva Noto: “Postfabric” (3:30) from “Transvision” (2005)
08. Alva Noto: “10″ (6:16) from “Transvision” (2005)
09. Alva Noto: “Bit” (5:49) from “Transspray” (2005)
10. Alva Noto: “Birr” (1:48) from “Transspray” (2005)
11. Alva Noto: “Obi One (Edit XS Version)” (2:40) from “Transspray” (2005)
12. Alva Noto: “Autoshape” (5:39) from “Transspray” (2005)
13. Alva Noto: “Spray” (1:39) from “Transspray” (2005)
 Alva Noto is the project name of Berlin’s audio/visual artist Carsten Nicolai (he who put the “Noton” in the Raster-Noton label). As the microscopic glitchcraft within is underscored by various subsonic activities you won’t want to miss, I recommend that you listen to Transform on a system with good bass-response.
The low-low-low frequencies of 1 sometimes pulse rhythmically, and are continually bespeckled with sputtering digital flecks and shimmery looping materials. Rippling machinelike emanations meet with 2′s high insectoid buzzes. Thumping/sparking syncopations stir the steady drones and sparse crackles of 3 (10:09).
Thrumming energies hover beneath the lightly crunchy rhythms of 4 evolving into something like deep-house gone micro. Amid a barely-wavering mechanical haze, 6′s fragmented percussion elements sputter in time with brief-but-suggestive throbs. hough there seems to be little to hang onto amidst its gauze-and-stutter, 9 proves to be quite catchy; its sonic backdrop extends (sans “beats”) into and through closing track, 10 (2:41).
Crisp, yet often vague, the rarefied rhythms of transform are even more intriguing for what’s not there… extraneous details are stripped away to reveal skeletal beat-patterns, deep emissions and bits of audio detritus. Ten such tracks fill almost-an-hour with alva noto’s 9.1 entrancing disintegrations. (Spider Bytes, www.squidco.com)
01. Alva Noto: “m 01″ (5:50) from “Transform” (2001)
02. Alva Noto: “m 02″ (3:37) from “Transform” (2001)
03. Alva Noto: “m 03″ (10:09) from “Transform” (2001)
04. Alva Noto: “m 04″ (6:26) from “Transform” (2001)
05. Alva Noto: “m 05″ (4:43) from “Transform” (2001)
06. Alva Noto: “m 06″ (5:36) from “Transform” (2001)
07. Alva Noto: “m 07″ (4:58) from “Transform” (2001)
08. Alva Noto: “m 08″ (5:27) from “Transform” (2001)
09. Alva Noto: “m 09″ (7:45) from “Transform” (2001)
10. Alva Noto: “m 10″ (2:41) from “Transform” (2001)
 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. The label releases a spectrum of electronica that ranges from abstract to ultra-minimal. 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.
Insen is heir to Vrioon (2003), Alva Noto’s collaboration with Japanese multi-instrumentalist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both represent something of a departure from the ascetic bent of their peers. Both explore the potential for interaction and tension between electronic and acoustic instrumentation, the latter taking form in Sakamoto’s piano. This relationship lies at the core of Insen and continues Vrioon’s cool melancholia in subtler, even more streamlined fashion. 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. The air-borne reverberations of the acoustic piano combine, impact and dissolve with digital loops, prods and waverings.
On “Aurora” notes are sustained and released as if Sakamoto were bidding a final, unwilling farewell to each one. On “Morning” he prods rising arpeggios gently as if afraid they might shatter. At the same time, echoing electronic streams and trembling resonances complement the pianist’s performance. Such is the sympathy of these elements that, moment by moment, the sense of a remarkably unified form is created. This is the initial impression at least. However, the association proves to be a mutable one. 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. 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. The resulting creative interplay makes for beautiful, rewarding music which only gradually reveals its subtleties. (Colin Buttimer, www.bbc.co.uk)
 If you are a fan of the crowded, element heavy electro that is often passed off as minimal these days then you are not going to like the latest outing from glitch meister Alva Noto and Japanese pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Were others claim to be astute students of the school of minimalism (and fail dismally) “Revep” state with conviction that it is the tutor, teacher and headmaster all rolled into one. Noto and Sakamoto have even kept the amount of tracks to a bare minimum, but don’t let the modestly lengthed tracklist scare you off this album can offer you much more than any regular sized album or even 3CD compilation.
Turn the volume up loud enough while listening to opening track ‘Siisx’ and you’ll hear unmistakable white noise. A mistake or recording problem? Not likely, nothing is an accident with these two virtuosos. Clicks, taps, clacks and taps skitter across the soundscape as Ryuichi’s expertly knocks away at the ebony and ivory. Don’t be surprised if you feel your throat tighten and a frosty sensation spread through your anterior lobes. Music? Art? Whatever it is this is less about listening and more about feeling.
Subtract the white noise, soon to be returned in a slightly altered form, and we have the beginning of ‘Mur’. Sakamoto strikes the keys as if sounding a bell and Alva Noto provides more mouth-watering scratches and concentrated beats. Only the sharpest ears will notice the subtle changes from the previous composition but keep your ears open and the rewards are considerable. These two collaborators employ the piano like the composers long gone to evoke emotion and stir feelings. Neo classical outings like ‘Siisx’ and ‘Mur’ help to lift this timeless instrument out of the handbag house cell to which it has been condemned for so long.
For the uninitiated Ryuichi Sakamoto was responsible for the theme song to 1980’s East meets West silver screen excursion “Merry Christmas Mr. Lwarence” starring Takeshi Kitano and David Bowie, minus of course the posing pouch he proudly donned in his “Labyrinth” role. ‘Ax Mr. L.’ is somewhat of a remix of Sakamoto’s popular tune. Here notes appear to hum amidst a light spattering of static. When compared to the sparseness of the anteceding song the stuttering sounds and purring keys utilized during this track almost feel like an overdose of stimulation, almost. Compare it to anything else, say music by Isolee or current minimal poster boys Richie Hawting and Ricardo Villalobos and you’ll be left wondering why they bother with all those superfluous samples.
This isn’t by any means an album to let loose and rock out to. In fact it is a refreshing change from all the electro sounds Tiefschwarz et al are dressing up as click, glitch and minimal. Play this at a party and you’ll be hung, drawn and quartered but turn it up a the next annual meeting of the chin strokers society and you’ll be hailed a hero. By all means listen to this CD numerous times but just be careful because there is a reason the album is only three songs long. Any more of this cleverly crafted masterpiece and you’d never want to waste your time with any of that other stuff posing as music. (Nick Lawrence, www.higher-frequency.com)
1. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Aurora” (8:51) from “Insen” (2005)
2. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Morning” (5:27) from “Insen” (2005)
3. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Logic Moon” (6:50) from “Insen” (2005)
4. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Moon” (6:07) from “Insen” (2005)
5. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Berlin” (6:16) from “Insen” (2005)
6. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Iano” (6:52) from “Insen” (2005)
7. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Avaol” (2:51) from “Insen” (2005)
8. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Mur” (8:14) from “Revep” (2006)
9. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: “Ax Mr.L.” (4:18) from “Revep” (2006)
 Vrioon was originally released back in 2003 to great critical acclaim, the product of an unusual creative partnership between the hugely prolific Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carston Nicolai, aka Alva Noto. The two met in Japan during Nicolai’s first live tour, but it wasn’t until Sakamoto heard a Noto remix of his own work commissioned by Code Unfinished magazine a year later that this two-year project began.
Vrioon was the product of musical creation via exchange rather than collaboration in the traditional sense, each artist composing, constructing and recording their parts of the process separately. Sakamoto built long passages of sparse yet emotionally charged and passionate piano solos, and Nicolai subsequently molded his trademark brand of sine waves, glitchy percussion and throbbing bass pulses around them.
The result of this ‘phoning-in’ process is a suite of amazingly cohesive and intertwined pieces that are contemplative, minimal and hypnotic. The aural equivalent of a solitary, spell in a Japanese stone garden, Nicolai’s systems-based rhythm structures sonically map the environment into which they are piped, while Sakamoto’s sensitive piano motifs breathe warmth and emotion into the mapped space. The protracted nature of these pieces further contributes to the music’s meditative aura and several pieces consist of two movements, the second eschewing the percussive elements of the first in favor of even more dreamy ambient layers.
Sakamoto has always been able to elicit a wealth of detail from even the most minimal of sources, and the elegant, minimal phrasing heard on the melancholy “Trioon I & II” is a perfect example. When coupled with medical bleeps, cool drones and half-felt bass glitches, the experience becomes positively transcendental.
Hard to sit down and listen to in one sitting as Vrioon can sometimes be, there’s no denying the understated impact that this body of work has, as well as the transforming and transporting effects it exerts both on the environment and the listener. If you only ever buy one release on the Raster-Noton label, this should be it. (www.igloomag.com)
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto
“Vrioon”
(2002)
1. Uoon I (13:51)
2. Uoon II (9:40)
3. Duoon (5:47)
4. Noon 10:13)
5. Trioon I (5:09)
6. Trioon II (9:57)
 Steve Roach & Loren Nerell
“Terraform”
(2006)
1. Texture Wall 28:03
“Terraform” is the first full collaborative album for longtime friends Steve Roach and Loren Nerell. The two composers met in LA in 1981, back in the early days of the electronic music scene. It was a time when like-minded musicians who understood the importance of emerging technology were coming together in local clubs and performance venues to share what they knew and learn from one another. After years of friendship and occasional musical collaboration the two decided to convene in a relaxed setting to see what they could distill from a blending of their collective talents and individual styles to accomplish common aims.
“Terraform” emerged from their mutual desire to create an organic, surreal and deeply ambient environment of langorous humid soundscape enviroments. Through a labyrinth of studio techniques, a kind of audio Terraforming was developed. Heavily textured and mood altering, the long uninterrupted flow seemingly slows time down by way of the surreal dark ambient soundforms found in much of Roach’s work. Nerell brings the steamy, evanescent blend of his mutated Indonesian sources, a signature sound that defines his previous releases for Amplexus, Side Effects and Soleilmoon.
Loren Nerell has studied gamelan music for the last 25 years, expanding and fine-tuning his mastery of Indonesia’s unique indigenous musical traditions through performances and field work. During this time he has accumulated a large number of field recordings, many of which he uses in his compositions. This has evolved from simply using the material as-is, to an elaborate processing technique in which the material is taken to a point so far from its original source as to be unrecognizable.
Along with their collaborative efforts Steve produced, mixed and provided art direction on this special release. “Terraform” is presented in a tall (DVD-style) Digipak, with three postcards and cover photographs by Brian Parnham. Initial impressions from several listeners have referenced Brian Eno’s seminal “On Land” recording.
Steve Roach & Loren Nerell
“Terraform”
(2006)
1. Cavity Of Liquids 18:32
2. Texture Wall 28:03
3. Paraterra 12:47
“Terraform” is the first full collaborative album for longtime friends Steve Roach and Loren Nerell. The two composers met in LA in 1981, back in the early days of the electronic music scene. It was a time when like-minded musicians who understood the importance of emerging technology were coming together in local clubs and performance venues to share what they knew and learn from one another. After years of friendship and occasional musical collaboration the two decided to convene in a relaxed setting to see what they could distill from a blending of their collective talents and individual styles to accomplish common aims.
“Terraform” emerged from their mutual desire to create an organic, surreal and deeply ambient environment of langorous humid soundscape enviroments. Through a labyrinth of studio techniques, a kind of audio Terraforming was developed. Heavily textured and mood altering, the long uninterrupted flow seemingly slows time down by way of the surreal dark ambient soundforms found in much of Roach’s work. Nerell brings the steamy, evanescent blend of his mutated Indonesian sources, a signature sound that defines his previous releases for Amplexus, Side Effects and Soleilmoon.
Loren Nerell has studied gamelan music for the last 25 years, expanding and fine-tuning his mastery of Indonesia’s unique indigenous musical traditions through performances and field work. During this time he has accumulated a large number of field recordings, many of which he uses in his compositions. This has evolved from simply using the material as-is, to an elaborate processing technique in which the material is taken to a point so far from its original source as to be unrecognizable.
Along with their collaborative efforts Steve produced, mixed and provided art direction on this special release. “Terraform” is presented in a tall (DVD-style) Digipak, with three postcards and cover photographs by Brian Parnham. Initial impressions from several listeners have referenced Brian Eno’s seminal “On Land” recording.
 Steve Roach
“Proof Positive”
(2006)
1. Westwind 21:46
2. Adreno Stream 11:25
3. Proof Positive 32:56
‘Shimmering’, ‘life-affirming’ and ‘moving only forward’ best describes this release drawn from the pulsing side of the lifeblood found in Steve’s work. “Proof Positive” was created from 2005 to 2006. These all-new pieces, sequential with textural undercurrents, have a kind floating sensation; the sum total is purely hypnotic with a contained and sustained energy that is consistent through the entire CD. This one lights up the brain and excites the ears in a way that only a hands-on spontaneous approach to carving pure analog sound can offer. A touchstone release for Steve, this is a perfect set for long drives on the open road or for traveling the inner landscapes while cruising in your favorite listening chair. Proof Positive indeed!
 Steve Roach
“Kairos: The Meeting Of Time And Destiny”
(2006)
1. Soul’s Time 8:04
2. Core Regeneration 8:18
3. Resonation Portal 4:59
4. Etheric Planet 10:39
5. Lifeforming 12:31
6. Biogenesis 10:15
7. Womb Of Light 5:04
The “Kairos” DVD is a dynamic flow of visual wonder worlds created by five master light, film, and digital artists in collaboration with Steve. Drawing from a spectrum of visual techniques — luminous organic analog light forms, dramatic Earth cinematography, cell-like computer animation — micro and macro worlds join in a mind-expanding symbiotic flow between sound and visuals. Creation of the visuals evolved alongside the music over several years.
The music, shaped to the images, was created in the studio with the dynamic understanding that comes from taking it “out there” on the edge in the live setting. Much of the soundtrack was created directly for “Kairos”, along with a merging of elements drawn from Steve’s recent and future releases.
The culmination is an essential representation of the mythic import found in Steve’s music and the visual core it stimulates. It is, both musically and visually, a pinnacle moment of shapeshifting sound and visionary-inducing works. Anyone who witnessed Steve’s concerts this millenium will know what’s in store. Featuring visuals from Lynn Augstein, Steve Lazur, Steven Rooke, John Vega, and John Wadsworth, with hybrid visual creation and final editing by Roger King.
Bonus feature: the DVD includes a montage of footage from two 2005 concerts. Includes complete soundtrack on audio CD.
 Steve Roach / Vidna Obmana
“Somewhere Else”
(2005)
1. Somewhere Else 73:55
First released as a limited edition of 2000 in 1998, the 3-CD box set “Ascension of Shadows” quickly sold out, and has remained a highly-desired prize for Roach and Obmana fans. In response to consistent requests, Projekt has initiated a reissue series which will present each disc as its own release, using John Cagian principles: the release dates are hinged upon when PRO177, PRO188 and PRO199 arrive on Projekt’s release schedule.
The first release in the series is the long-form piece “Somewhere Else”. This track is without doubt among the most serene, purely atmospheric and non-threatening of Roach and Obmana’s recorded work together, and was originally presented in the “Ascension of Shadows” 3-CD box set, which was subtitled “Meditations For the Millennium”. The intentions for creating a place of solace for what the artists were sensing, with the approaching anticipation of the year 2000 and beyond, feels especially potent and nourishing when heard now.
 Steve Roach
“Texture Maps: The Lost Pieces Vol. 3″
(2003)
1. Gray and Purple 21:14
2. Artifact Ghost (edit) 8:46
3. Spiral Triptych 15:24
6. Bottomless 2 7:03
7. Quiet Sun 5:29
8. Soul Light 15:09
“Texture Maps” gathers tracks from 1987 to 2003 through different stages of this artist’s life. It feels the echoes of distant times typical of “Dreamtime Return” or “Quiet Music”, where Roach explored wide, tuneful spaces in absolute lack of gravity, and the real sonorities chosen for the monumental “Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces”. Those two worlds are not independent; far from it they interpenetrate and enhance the link between the old and the new, and also testify the integrity of either the man or the artist along with his constant development, as well as his never-ending creativity.
Often used as the linking material during concerts (“Artifact Ghost”, for instance, was chosen as the opening for the Due Acque concert), or as a deep atmosphere to put in “Timeroom” loop in order to shape the nights in the desert, these deeply static tracks come as fragments of a huge mosaic, the boundaries of which are no longer visible.
Roach is way beyond our range of vision. He is the most advanced musician of the Ambient movement. If this is his “scrap” work, then it comes easy to get the reason for that. The long, epic genesis of “Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces” had Roach keeping himself in the Timeroom for months, as he got stricken by a rare, creative fever; it was his own inner flame that burnt away, and the consequent soundworlds pushed him to pursue the searching, to end up completely worn out by the rash of creativity, and to open new gaps.
Superb sounds and atmosphere convoy into what can be looked at as the spiritual will of an artist who has always tried to share with us his own visions or the projects in his mind, and who has eventually overcome his own skills by wide-opening his heart in a most extreme way, in a final sacrifice, in a perfect act which has disclosed his unconscious engine-room door — the image of collective unconscious. Travelling through times and places belonging to the myth, Roach reached the depth of his own soul as well as ours. He saw things that only music can describe, and he brought those things back to us. It’s been quite a while since I last shuddered, since I was surprised by every single change of atmosphere, or since I shivered along with the air. These four records represent a sort of experience that transcends mere listening; they are sacred sculptures, or spaces of a new cathedral sound, or the keys to revealed truth. After such a work, Deep Music is bound to change. The king is dreaming. Let’s listen to him in religious silence. (Gianluigi Gasparetti, Deep Listenings)
 Steve Roach
“Light Fantastic”
(1999)
1. Trip the Light 8:34
2. Breathing the Pulse 5:25
3. The Reflecting Chamber 7:05
4. Touch the Pearl 9:24
5. Realm of Refraction 11:20
6. The Luminous Return 16:48
Steve Roach dances the light fantastic on his new album, but his rhythms won’t have Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers doing heavenly dips and twirls. Instead, the veteran techno-tribal synthesist generates a zombie-like dance of head-twisting grooves that owe more to trance than dance. Phantom hand drummers whip rapid brush strokes on virtual drums, while chordal clouds descend like the mother ship out of the sky. Like most of Roach’s recent work, “Light Fantastic” is music of immersion. Melodies, such as they are, evolve out of his densely layered sound designs, which hover above the landscape, plunging and swirling with predatory yet beautiful stealth. With “Light Fantastic”, Roach has created his own sound world from the ground up, full of original colors sifted through stroboscopic beams and refracting prisms. (Billboard)
 Steve Roach
“The Magnificent Void”
(1996)
1. Between the Gray and the Purple 7:42
2. Void Memory One 2:53
3. Infinite Shore 7:47
4. Cloud of Unknowing 10:38
5. Void Memory Two 3:40
6. Void Memory Three 3:41
7. The Magnificent Void 13:13
8. Altus 20:01
A Magnum Opus of pure oceanic sound and Roach’s most sophisticated atmospheric work to date. The final track “Altus”, Latin for both “high” and “deep”, says much about this work. The most demanding and textural of Roach’s work, it has more in common with 20th century avant-garde than other genres. A chilling and beautiful continuous flow of harmonic sound-worlds. Melody and harmony are present throughout in a surreal play of light and dark colors.
Steve Roach
“Artifacts”
(1994)
1. Groundswell 8:15
2. The Origin of Artifacts 25:46
3. Your Own Eyes 8:02
4. Ancestral Horizon 7:49
5. Temple of the Frog 8:55
6. Begin Where I End 8:01
On his 1993 recording, “Origins”, Steve Roach explored the cracks between conscious and unconscious awareness, weaving a tale of primal mystery and musical sorcery through a compelling synthesis of ancient and modern aesthetics. As Darren Bergstein of i/e magazine observed, “Never before has Roach’s electronic surface felt so earthen and weathered; all of the assertive ambience and environmental dissonance he’s pressured up to now has reached its critical mass in “Origins” molten core.”
With “Artifacts”, Roach delves deeper into his own sonic mythology expanding his skills on acoustic instruments and realizing a profound level of artistry on electronics. Roach’s obsession with the shifting of time finds form in his gift for creating trance-inducing rhythms that sound both primordial and futuristic.
His rich, eternally swirling textures, seem to rise up from the darkness of the unconscious, bringing shards of long forgotten musical impulses to light once more. It’s as if he’s sifting through the soil of an ancient site, gathering fragments and piecing them together to reveal a new story that casts its shadow far beyond the present. Through it all, Roach reminds us that one day we, too, will be the artifacts in the minds of some future civilization.
 The second in an ongoing series of atmospheric zones by master sound painter Steve Roach, IMMERSION: TWO presents a subtle shift from the luminous steady state harmonic current of IMMERSION: ONE. On this 73 minute, long-form soundscape, a sinuous weblike mist seems to emanate from the speakers. Mysterious yet calm and introspective, this is the perfect sound environment for the deeper hours after midnight, or anytime a quiet, engulfing audio landscape is desired. If Nag Champa or Sandalwood incense had a sound, this might be it.
Steve writes…
“This continuous zone, titled ‘Artifact Ghost’, has to be one of my favorites for late-night activity and sleeping. For years I kept coming back to it, as it always feels alive and never-ending, never beginning. This piece was a big part of the inspiration to start the Immersion series. An 8-minute excerpt from the 90-minute original was heard on TEXTURE MAPS, and after this glimpse of the ghost I was struck by how many requests there were for a long-form version.
“Perceptive ears will hear shades of this ephemeral zone as far back as ARTIFACTS, where I wove it into the fabric under the tribal-based grooves. Its smoky presence paid a visit on CAVERN OF SIRENS as well. If you were at any of my concerts in the mid to late 90′s, there’s a good chance you heard this piece setting the space before my performance. On IMMERSION: TWO I took the opportunity to live with this zone again, to fine-tune and melt the ‘Artifact Ghost’ even more, creating subtle movements and adding nearly subliminal openings along the way. I was shaping this IMMERSION: TWO version right up ’til the last moment. It’s playing in loop mode right now.”
 A purely improvisational live performance experiment at the ICA [London, UK] as part of the Atlantic Waves: London International Festival of Exploratory Music, November 9, 2007. An extemporary collaborative effort among three artists of the experimental/laptop scene.
Sawako: computer and voice
Richard Chartier: computer
Shinjiro Yamaguchi: mixing board + feedback loops + sampling
A piece full of hope: Shows the quasi-equality between improvisation and spontaneous composition.
While Taylor Deupree is openly debating closing Term down in a bid to fight the gradual devaluation of music because of its widespread free availability, the music on 12K’s online sister label is making that possible closure seem increasingly like a swod of Damocles. “November 9, 2007” (take a wild guess at the title’s meaning!) is yet another tactile live document and follows in the footsteps of Steve Roden’s more withdrawn but equally adrenalin-driven “Amnesia”.
On the other hand, it is easy to understand Deupree’s frustration. “November 9,.2007” may be a concert registration with all the rough edges and tiny production-blemishes that come with a direct-to-DAT performance. Its lineup and musical content should easily justify a visit to your local independent record store however, featuring a stage collaboration between Richard Chartier and two major talents of Japan’s bustling soundart scene: Sawako and Shinjiro Yamaguchi.
This pairing already makes for a great combination on paper, the spatial explorations of Chartier meeting the emotional landscapes of Sawako and the Post-Post-Rock fantasies of Yamaguchi. As their synergetic rumblings unfold, however, the trio reaches a plateau of common understanding that is much more than a head-on collision of their indivisual styles.
From a glistening and rustling, lighfilled and open introduction full of processed field recordings in search of harmonic direction, a warm and shining drone rises to the fore like the sun at dawn, while more and more bleeping and whispering noises winkingly awaken from their slumber. As the drone subsides, the darker side takes over again, as the piece enters a cavernous bassin of muffled cries and muted screams, before finally coming to peace again in the final minutes, as the soft cloud of overtones returns and brings things to a consoling climax.
Recorded at the Atlantic Waves Festival in London, this is a pure improvisational piece, yet it shows that the latter term has always been a quasi-equivalent spontaneous composition. It is as if Chartier, Sawako and Yamaguchi had agreed to a wordless concept at the outset, related to portraying various moods within the cycle of a single day. There is a distinct sensation of development, the feeling that one has lived through a particular episode with the musicians, before dusk hits the land and the moon lights up the night sky.
With its fairy-tale ambiance and its surprising happy end, “November 9, 2007” is a piece full of hope, which sticks out from the sombre, clinically abstract or formulaic emmissions of some of its colleagues. Whether or not one should pay to listen to it, is a complex question, which can not be answered within the limited space of a review. But one should never take a release like this for granted. As long as Term is still out there, treat this little treasure by Chartier, Sawako and Shinjiro Yamaguchi as what it really is: A present. – By Tobias Fischer
 Ran Slavin is a Prix Ars Electronica awarded composer with releases on Sub Rosa, Mille Plateaux and Cronica, live video/sound, image generative sound, installations
After 2004′s “Tropical Agent / Ears in Water” and last year’s “The Wayward Regional Transmissions” — awarded a honorable mention at the Prix Ars Electronica — Ran’s third full-length release in Crónica is now available in the Unlimited Release series, with 10 tracks available for free download or choose-to-pay-as-you-will donations.
“Nocturnal Rainbow Rising” drifts across far removed cinematic panoramas of lush nightly atmospheres. The tracks bear forms of sound memories, occlusions of dreamy nocturnal passages, of introspective and illusory projections arising from the metropolitan environments to the tundra.
The 10 tracks form evasive atmospheres between the audible and the visual, at times resembling fragments of a cinematic tale yet untold, a characteristic of Ran’s ongoing work that has made it so dear to his listeners.
 Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi has worked in many musical areas over the years, producing music for theatres, movie directors and ballet companies, as well as releasing solo albums notable for their sophisticated restraint and elegant minimalism. Divenire – Einaudi’s seventh studio album – is a slight diversion in that it’s the first time the composer has collaborated with a full orchestra: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to be exact. Einaudi’s compelling piano pieces are still at the core of Divenire and remain as mesmerising as ever, but the orchestral embellishments lend his work a richer, more sweeping ambience. Divenire also sees Einaudi experiment with electronics, though these are used sparingly; primarily as textural devices. While not as minimal as earlier works, Divenire does not embrace the epic, preferring instead to ebb and flow gently between pared-down piano pieces and the fuller, more emotive sentiments of “Primavera,” or the 11-minute opus, “Oltremare.” Representing yet another stage in a formidably progressive career, Divenire sees Ludovico Einadi at the height of his imaginative powers. –Danny McKenna, Amazon.com
‘Divenire’ is the seventh studio album from Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi. Originally conceived back in 2002 – when Einaudi was invited to compose and perform a piece for the I Suoni Delle Dolomiti festival – ‘Divenire’ sees Einaudi backed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic giving a new dimension to his minimalist and moving piano pieces.
 We all know about Erik Skodvin’s activities outside of Deaf Center – he’s carved out quite a solo career for himself as Svarte Greiner – but what of the Norwegian duo’s other member, Otto Totland? For the past couple of years he’s worked as part of the duo, Nest, with Huw Roberts, releasing their eponymous debut EP in 2007 on Roberts’ own Serein label. Now the two artists at last follow up that release with this wonderful full-length, which lifts its first six tracks from the EP (with one newly reworked) and adds a further five new compositions. Retold is something of a masterpiece within its field. Even on early inspections this record excels on every level as a piece of cinematic, ambient contemporary classical composition. From the writing, performances and sparing arrangements right down to the deeply atmospheric production this is an album that followers of cinematic score-work/modern-classical music will absolutely relish, combining memorable deployments of both melody and texture with a kind of scrupulous minimalism that never overplays its hand. ‘Lodge’ serves as an apt introduction to the album, setting out with muffled, bell-like piano phrases, pining horns and the gentlest current of strings, but by the time we arrive at ‘Marefjellet’ the duo have really hit their stride, conjuring suspenseful, filmic passages populated by rhythmic keying figures, deep, bass-heavy harps and vintage-style electronic processing. At times it’s as if you’re listening to a cross between Biosphere’s Insomnia soundtrack and his album, Shenzhou, and in terms of ambient music, that must surely be regarded as a compliment of the highest order. Elsewhere, more abstract pieces arrive with the likes of ‘Trans Siberian’, where the influence of sound collage takes hold: early outbreaks of wintry drone merge with passing locomotive sounds, before an evocative mixture of coarse, filtered strings, fractured piano and field recordings start to flow. The previously unreleased material on the disc proves to be more than up to the task of following up the earlier EP tracks: ‘Wheatstone’ is full of immaculately produced, aloof romanticism, while ‘The Helwick’ takes on a blizzard-like feel with its musty, Deathprod-like approach to engineering. Possibly the most extroverted of all the recordings here is ‘Far From Land’, a composition that’s just achingly beautiful as it builds up to a choral midway point that’s guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention. Retold is sure to enthrall followers of Deaf Center’s ambient audio-sculpting, but it’s also bound to resonate strongly with anyone who follows the work of artists like Peter Broderick, Johann Johannsson and Max Richter too. Very highly recommended.
Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi has worked in many musical areas over the years, producing music for theatres, movie directors and ballet companies, as well as releasing solo albums notable for their sophisticated restraint and elegant minimalism. Divenire – Einaudi’s seventh studio album – is a slight diversion in that it’s the first time the composer has collaborated with a full orchestra: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to be exact. Einaudi’s compelling piano pieces are still at the core of Divenire and remain as mesmerising as ever, but the orchestral embellishments lend his work a richer, more sweeping ambience. Divenire also sees Einaudi experiment with electronics, though these are used sparingly; primarily as textural devices. While not as minimal as earlier works, Divenire does not embrace the epic, preferring instead to ebb and flow gently between pared-down piano pieces and the fuller, more emotive sentiments of “Primavera,” or the 11-minute opus, “Oltremare.” Representing yet another stage in a formidably progressive career, Divenire sees Ludovico Einadi at the height of his imaginative powers. –Danny McKenna, Amazon.com
‘Divenire’ is the seventh studio album from Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi. Originally conceived back in 2002 – when Einaudi was invited to compose and perform a piece for the I Suoni Delle Dolomiti festival – ‘Divenire’ sees Einaudi backed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic giving a new dimension to his minimalist and moving piano pieces.
 The music of the composer/pianist Ludovico Einaudi has been described as minimalist, classical, ambient, contemporary and deeply touching. Einaudi’s name has become synonymous with contemporary classical style. This new album, Una Mattina, features Ludovico Einaudi on solo piano and includes several haunting tracks with piano and cello.
After many years working as a composer of scores and then working in pure classical music, this album is Einaudi’s mostprogressive work to date. It takes lyrical influence from non-typical and pop related topics and this is melded with Einaudi’s contemporary classical sound.
Ludovico Einaudi (born 23 November 1955 in Turin) is a modern-day Italian composer and pianist particularly noted for the use of developing melodious phrases in his piano compositions.
He began his musical training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, gaining a diploma in composition. Later, he studied with Luciano Berio. In 1982, he gained a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Festival. He currently resides on a vineyard in the Italian region of Piemonte.
Although Einaudi would prefer not to be labeled as any particular type of composer, he is generally considered a Minimalist.
“In general I don’t like definitions, but ‘Minimalist’ is a term that means elegance and openness, so I would prefer to be called a Minimalist than something else.”, Einaudi
 A major figure in American contemporary music since the 1960s, Robert Ashley has acquired an international reputation for his work in new forms of opera and multi-disciplinary projects. In his book, American Music in the 20th Century, Kyle Gann states, “Electronically innovative, socially provocative, and incorrigibly theatrical, Robert Ashley epitomizes the conceptualism of the 1960s, yet more than any other figure he has transcended it.” In the 1960s, Ashley organized Ann Arbor’s legendary ONCE Festival and directed the ONCE Group. During the 1970s, he directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, toured with the Sonic Arts Union, and produced and directed Music with Roots in the Aether, a 14-hour television opera/documentary about the work and ideas of seven American composers. Ashley wrote and produced Perfect Lives, an opera for television widely considered the precursor of “music-television.” Staged versions of Perfect Lives and Atalanta (Acts of God) and the monumental opera tetralogy, Now Eleanor’s Idea have toured throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. He wrote Balseros for Florida Grand Opera, Dust for premiere at the Kanagawa Arts Foundation in Yokohama, and Celestial Excursions for the Berlin Festival and Hebbel Theater Berlin. Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930 and was educated at the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music.
Concrete follows from Robert Ashley’s preoccupation in two previous operas with the kind of speech that has not been explored in opera — in Dust, the speech of the homeless; in Celestial Excursions, the speech of people living together in a home for old people. The three operas are not a “trilogy” in any sense, but they all come from this preoccupation with or fascination with special kinds of speech and special kinds of states of mind.
“The characters I’m interested in,” Ashley explains, “are marginal, because everybody is marginal compared to the stereotypes. I am interested in their profoundly good qualities, and I’m not interested at all in evil. The characters in my work are as bizarre and unreal as the characters in William Faulkner. They just happen to be ordinary people who are spiritually divine.” (The Wire, 2003).
Though in Concrete it is not made explicit in any way, the libretto might be considered to be the “musings” of an old man alone. He thinks about strange questions and even as the questions are asked they are answered in various forms of sarcasm, indifference, questions about the questions and explanations. In other words, he is talking to himself.
The opera takes the form of five “discussions” about matters he wonders about: Why do people keep secrets about themselves? Why do the buildings in the city all line up perfectly (vertically) when the surface of the planet is round? Why is it that so many things that people do as recreation are played counter-clockwise? What has happened to the many women friends (“lovers”) he has had and “left behind” and why were they left behind? And, finally, the fact that he has recently seen a “flying carpet” (in his bedroom.)
The five “internal” discussions alternate with four reminiscences about people the old man has worked with and loved. The reminiscences are short and detailed biographies of seemingly ordinary people who in the past did extraordinary things — sometimes criminal, sometimes just brave in an unusual way — but will never be recognized for what they did. The stories will never be known, except to the audience. No one is named. These are secret lives.
The singers in the opera are not “characters” in any traditional way. They take part in the very fast “discussions” sections as voices in the old man’s musings. Then each of the singers is given one of the “biographies” as a solo aria.
The musical technique of the opera allows the singers, in ensemble and as soloists, complete freedom with regard to vocal pitch, speech nuance and inflection. The opera will be sung differently in every performance. The orchestra, recorded in the computer, is made up of some hundreds of composed, short orchestral “samples” which can be chosen at the moment to make up the accompaniment to the singers’ decisions about how to tell the story. In short, every performance, but based on the same libretto, will be different.
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