12 Conversations

Description

NOTON is pleased to announce the release of 12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, scheduled for September 18, 2026. The partnership between legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and German artist Carsten Nicolai (alias Alva Noto) has given rise to some of the most remarkable and timeless works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Since Vrioon in 2002, the artists have merged and enriched their respective disciplines for over twenty years, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-rich piano compositions resonating with Nicolai's subtle and precise electronic work. Each successive project has deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs) to their soundtrack for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a fully improvised performance within Philip Johnson's iconic building in Connecticut, where the duo attached contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a recording of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House. Through these works, their distinct approaches have resulted in a rare synthesis, a richly woven dialogue between piano and electronics, with Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to create a hypnotic tranquility, deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as well as in the fusion of cinematic romanticism and meditative subtlety. 12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Emerging from the same creative period that produced Sakamoto's latest solo album, 12, these recordings were not initially intended for independent release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a standalone work. This album reflects the vitality and curiosity that have characterized over twenty years of shared inspiration: a fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking inspiration. Created in an atmosphere of openness and trust, it captures a constantly evolving creative process – sounds that amplify, transform, and evolve through attentive listening. Designed as an extension of an artistic dialogue that transcends the physical world, "12 Conversations" honors Sakamoto's wish for these encounters to endure beyond the archives, offering a lasting testament to one of the most significant collaborations in contemporary music.