Published
Mon, Dec 11, 2017, 12:50
- The two artists recorded the live, improvised LP at Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut.
Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto have collaborated on a live, improvised LP titled Glass.
The pair recorded the album at Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut. The project started when 87-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama provided an installation at the house to mark the 110th anniversary of Johnson's birth. Sakamoto and Alva Noto (real name Carsten Nicolai) then performed at a private event in the house to help launch Kusama's work. That performance was recorded and is now being released as an album.
"When I was offered to perform at The Glass House, the first idea that came to my mind was to use the house itself as a musical instrument," says Sakamoto. "It was completely musical and 100 percent improvised, as that's what we usually do. Looking at the beautiful landscape through the glass wall with Kusama's dots was something, and it affected me, affected us, I should say, a lot. It's a strange mixture of natural, nature, and artificial things, art."
Glass is coming out via Nicolai's Noton label. It's Sakamoto and Nicolai's first collaboration since their award-winning soundtrack work for Alejandro González Iñárritu's film The Revenant. The pair have released six albums together.
Read this year's Resident Advisor interview with Ryuichi Sakamoto, who this year released a solo album called async.
Noton will release Glass on February 16th, 2018.
