독일 출신의 유명한 엠비언트/익스페리멘탈 일렉트로닉 뮤지션인 ALVA NOTO와 일본출신으로 전세계적으로 사랑받고있는 영화음악가 겸 일렉트로닉 뮤지션인 RYUICHI SAKAMOTO의 합작음반. 차분한 피아노의 멜로디에 흐르는 정적인 일렉트로닉 이펙트는 당신의 명상을 도와줄지도 모르겠다. 마치 깨질것 같은 분위기의 곡들은 Brian Eno의 엠비언트 시리즈들을 생각나게끔 하는데 이것은 슬픔을 동반하고 있으며 이러한 류의 일렉트로닉 사운드를 좋아하는 사람이라면 어쨌든 들어봐야하는 음반.

독일 노이즈 사운드의 거장, Alva Noto와 말이 필요없는 피아니스트 Ryuichi Sakamoto가 함께하는 앰비언트 프로젝트!
어떤 적막한 풍경의 놀랍도록 아름다운 느낌이 느껴지는 피아노와 일렉트로닉 사운드의 조화! 일곱 곡이 수록된 2002년 발매되었던 그들의 첫 번째 EP
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto (알바 노토 + 류이치 사카모토)는 이름처럼 일본의 작곡가이자 피아니스트인 류이치 사카모토와 독일의 앰비언트와 현대음악을 오가는 노이즈 사운드의 거장, 알바 노토가 함께하는 프로젝트다. 둘은 알바 노토가 일본 공연을 위해 왔을 때 만나, 같이 작업하는 사이가 되었다고 하는데 꾸준하고 틈틈하게 작업물을 주고받으며 앰비언트와 익스페리멘탈, 현대음악 사이의 오묘한 사운드가 돋보이는 음악들을 선보이기 시작했다. 특히 작년에는 영화 ‘레버넌트: 죽음에서 돌아온 자’ 의 사운드 트랙을 제작하면서 2017 그래미 사운드트랙 부문에 노미네이트되기도 했다. 함께하면 더욱 오묘하고 깊은 사운드를 들려주는 두 거장 아티스트!
본 작, [Vrioon]는 Alva Noto(알바 노토)와 Ryuichi Sakamoto(류이치 사카모토)가 함께하는 앰비언트 프로젝트 첫 EP이다. 놀랍도록 아름다운 앰비언트 일렉트로닉 사운드와 오묘한 피아노 선율이 어떤 적막한 풍경을 떠오르게 하는 여섯 곡!

during his first live tour in japan carsten nicolai met ryuichi sakamoto in tokyo. a year after it happened that he was asked to remix material from sakamoto for the japanese magazine code unfinished.

"… 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."

this was the beginning of an almost 2 year process of music exchange and creation. vrioon is very relaxing, it opens rooms, landscapes blur before listeners eyes. static rhythmic pieces circle round and vary one and the same theme that, with its impressionistic sphere, reminds of soundtracks and ambient compositions.

in this cooperation 2 different generations meet and share the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures.

ruyichi sakamoto can already refer to an enormous productive achievment. in 1978 he founded the yellow magic orchestra together with haruomi hosono and yukihiro takahashi which later went on world tour with kraftwerk. since 1983 he has been working in the film branch and has written soundtracks for merry christmas, mr. laurence, the last emporer and little buddha. he also worked with famous artists such as david bowie, david byrne, david sylvian, iggy pop, robert wilson and william burroughs.

carsten nicolai can be seen as one of the most significant artist of the new electronic music generation that shows new attempts in sound composing with its radical reduced style. besides several solo releases he also worked with ultra minimalist mika vainio from pansonic and the japanese sound artist ryoji ikeda. carsten nicolai is one of the founders of the label raster-noton that was awarded the Golden Nica for digital music from ars electronica in 2000.

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 on Sep 01 2006