A collaboration between Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto makes very good sense on paper and thankfully it works on CD too. The former is one of the leading “Glitch” artists producing exquisitely beautiful laptop music (just to throw in two tags that either tell you exactly what to expect or leave you utterly clueless), in his case using a standard electric guitar in the main as the base ingredient. The latter is the classically trained pianist, former leader of the Japanese Beatles (or Kraftwerk depending on whether you are talking about sales or style) the Yellow Magic Orchestra, Oscar winning soundtrack composer, World music guru oh and a bit of acting too.
This album is different to other Fennesz albums in that Sakamoto’s beautiful piano music is to the fore on all tracks. If you follow Sakamoto’s work and have heard or own “BTTB” then you know what to expect. This also makes the album easier for non-Glitch, non-laptop aficionados to appreciate. However, Fennesz devotees should not worry because his distinctive style is there in every track, taking the solo piano technique and adding that superb atmospheric effect, taking it into the ionosphere.
It would be wrong to compare this album to Fennesz last major outing, the wonderful “Venice” with the hauntingly beautiful “Transit” featuring David Sylvian’s vocals and sounding like a 21st century “Ghosts” as it really is a collaboration between these two heavyweights. A union of two worlds not a clash of cultures, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
If you want to know what Debussey in a thunder storm sounds like then this is the closest you are likely to come.
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Originally posted August 23, 2007
