Alva Noto is a German visual and audio artist. He makes what he calls ‘error music’, a technique that involves recording electronic audio errors and splicing them together. Rather than sampling the sounds and sequencing them, Noto composes the pieces by recording the audio (presumably onto tape) and splicing the composition together.
Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese pianist, composer, writer, musician and actor, among other things. I first heard of him when he did the score for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, that film with David Bowie in a POW camp from the 80s.
You might recognise it:
This unlikely couple joined forces in 2002, producing an album called Vrioon.
It sounds to me like Ryuichi Sakamoto gave Alva Noto some recordings to cut up and play around with. Although they do play live together with Ryuichi on the ivories and Noto making his errors. It’s an interesting watch.
In any case, the ‘error’ rhythms and long drawn out chords are captivating haunting.
Here are some of my favourites:
Also, here’s some of Noto’s visual work:
MORE LOVELY TUNES:
