Cendre ::: Christian Fennesz / Ryuichi Sakamoto ::: Touch

Beautiful mournful shimmering abstract sound painting courtesy of Christian Fennesz ( electric guitar, electronics) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano). Recorded respectively in New York and Venice between 2004 and 2006, Fennesz and Sakamoto worked in geographic isolation from each other until meeting up for the final mixdown in NYC in February 2006.

My first thoughts were that it might have been better for the two collaborators to have worked together in the sense of being in the same room. I cannot base this on anything solid. Further thoughts were that there is a lot of space in these compositions, and that the geographic distances and the time frame might have helped the creative process, due to a delayed, fragmented kind of intimacy that could facilitate something more considered. This may be mere expiant verbiage, but it’s something about how they carefully fit together and around each other, like different elements in a visual composition, that provokes this thinking. I’m not saying that they couldn’t have managed to do this in the same room – how would I know anyway – but that I was just struck by the manner of the collaboration.

The music itself is delicate, sublime, Fennesz’s guitar ricocheting around softly, touching my mind in an abstract, soothing yet focussed way. Reminiscent of the way Robert Hampson’s sonic alchemy works, or Brian Eno and Robert Fripp on ‘Evening Star’, though with more electronic treatments: an enquiry to Christians’ agent, Danilo Pellegrinelli, revealed that Christian uses guitars and a patch written in max/ msp, called "lloopp" which was designed by friend Claus Fillip: it’s quite well documented if you search for it in google.

It’s impressive how the respective aesthetic palettes combine together, complimenting each other without compromise, and it’s a real move on from his nonetheless brilliant ‘Venice’, particularly in terms of the spaciousness of the music: ‘Venice’ was closer in proximity and has a different production aesthetic. I keep thinking of abstract painting, like Victor Passmore, or Rothko. Maybe Rothko with little white lines dribbled playfully through some of his colour blocks. Talking of art, the sleeve art is handled beautifully by John Wozencroft. The cover is a landscape photograph, of an auburn sky beneath which is a winter treeline, parting slightly in the centre to reveal a small silhouette of a house: different forms combining to one image.

Nb: see also: http://www.digicult.it/En/2007/FenneszAtlas.asp

and http://www.semtexinc.com/interviews/interview.php?ID=32