When Ryūichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai, alias Alva Noto, first met, it was a surprise: what could connect a Japanese impressionist who had turned to the piano with a formally rigorous electronic musician from Chemnitz? It quickly became clear that both of them — whether at the piano or behind a laptop — knew how to search for depths beneath the surfaces of sound. Sakamoto's fragile keystrokes, combined with Nicolai's sterile sound sculptures, opened up new dimensions. Musikexpress ↗
Over more than twenty years, several albums emerged, and 12 Conversations puts a period at the end of them. By the time the duo was recording these tracks, it must already have been clear that Sakamoto, ill with cancer, would not live to see their release. What is surprising, according to Musikexpress, is how little sentimental this music sounds. Musikexpress ↗
Until now, Sakamoto had not had a single track on SuperMusic.cz. He has now gained Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Thousand Knives, and Energy Flow — all three instrumental.
Sakamoto died in March 2023 at the age of seventy-one. Besides Yellow Magic Orchestra and his solo career, he is known for his film music — he won an Oscar for The Last Emperor, and his theme for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is among the most-played piano pieces of the second half of the century.
12 Conversations is a period at the end of a twenty-year collaboration between Sakamoto and Alva Noto
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