Fennesz Sakamoto – Cendre

This piano/electronics duo is an arrangement Ryuichi Sakamoto has been recently exploring in concert, with ultra-minimalist Alva Noto among others, so it seems a natural for his second collaboration with Christian Fennesz. Listening to Cendre after returning again to Sala Saint Cecilia, their EP from 2005, affirms that the two records couldn’t be more different. The latter was a single live 19-minute track that found Sakamoto inhabiting the abstract digitalia we’ve come to associate with Fennesz, directing his diverse talent toward epic computer-based composition. Cendre feels like a meeting of equals occurring precisely halfway between the two.