alva noto & ryuichi sakamoto: summvs

repress. Raster-Noton releases the album Summvs, the latest result of the unusual creative partnership between the Oscar-prize honored film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the fine artist and electronic music pioneer Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto. The name of the artists' fifth collaborative release Summvs refers to the Latin word "summa" (engl.: sum) and "versus" (engl.: towards), serving as a metaphor for the work being oriented towards a collaborative whole. Summvs is the last of a series of five releases that started with Vrioon in 2002 and continued with 2005's Insen and Revep and Utp_  in 2007. Passages of sparse yet emotionally-charged and passionate piano solos are embedded in sine waves or reworked to establish new aesthetics of piano sound. Sparse percussions and throbbing bass pulses hover above and below -- the music being contemplative and minimal at the same time. The tracks "Microon I-III" contain recordings of one of the 15 pianos using a 16th tone interval tuning built by Sauter, Spaichingen/Donaueschingen, Germany. The original "Piano Metamorfoseador En Dieciseisavos De Tono" was designed by Julián Carrillo Trujillo. Thanks to the music department of Berne University of the Arts for making this instrument available. Included in the album are two cover versions of the track "By This River," originally written by Roedelius, Moebius and Brian Eno in 1977. In their instrumental versions of the song, Nicolai and Sakamoto create and investigate the song's appeal in both normal speed and slow motion. Ryuichi Sakamoto on piano and Alva Noto on electronics will present this fifth collaborative release live with a uniquely-styled visualization and a state-of-the-art technical setting and stage design.