Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto

Summvs is the fifth, and purportedly final, album of collaboration between minimal glitch artist Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and world-renowned soundtrack composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both are accomplished masters of minimal music, albeit in vastly different fields, and few ensembles quite manage to combine the twin attack of modern classical and glitch as successfully as Noto and Sakamoto. Not unlike their previous collaborations, Summvs is dominated by sparse, emotive piano residing under glitchy sine wave manipulation, punctuated by pockets of pulsating bass. Sakamoto's parts for the three movements of "Microon" were recorded on a rare 16th tone interval piano housed at Bern University of the Arts in Switzerland, based upon a one-off piano originally designed by late Mexican composer Julián Carrillo Trujillo. Standout tracks are the haunting "Naono," clocking in at over 11 minutes, and not one but two instrumental re-workings of Brian Eno's 1977 classic "By This River."