Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ensemble Modern - Utp_ (Remaster) (2009) [Hi-Res]

Commissioned by the city of Mannheim (Germany) for its 400th anniversary, UTP was co-composed by Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The work, whose title is deducted from the word "utopia," is scored for electronics, piano, and chamber ensemble, the latter being Ensemble Modern. It consists in extremely slow-paced tableaux of stretched out octaves and skeletal motives, a Butoh-like performance. The piece is solemn and entrancing, like Morton Feldman's music -- more elegant, perhaps. It marks a new step in the evolution of Nicolai and Sakamoto's music, together and apart, as neither of them had yet concocted something this sparse, this naked. Their previous collaborations could have been filed under "ambient music," but UTP belongs in the contemporary classical bin.

Tracklist:
1 01. Alva Noto - Attack/Transition (07:23)
1 02. Alva Noto - Grains (06:24)
1 03. Alva Noto - Particle 1 (06:40)
1 04. Alva Noto - Transition (03:31)
1 05. Alva Noto - Broken Line 1 (06:31)
1 06. Alva Noto - Plateaux 1 (08:07)
1 07. Alva Noto - Silence (06:50)
1 08. Alva Noto - Particle 2 (07:00)
1 09. Alva Noto - Broken Line 2 (06:25)
1 10. Alva Noto - Plateaux 2/End (13:10)