Following two critically acclaimed album-length collaborations,
Alva Noto
and
Ryuichi Sakamoto
set off on an expansive tour of Europe's most prestigious art galleries and concert halls to celebrate their partnership. This three-track
Rev EP
was released as a tour accompaniment, and features three previously unreleased compositions from the
Insen
Vrioon
sessions. The EP's opener
"siisx"
features
Carsten Nicolai
(
) taking complete control over the sound design and arrangement of the composition; dissecting
Sakamoto
's emotive piano lines carefully as a surgeon and feeding them through his laptop; processing and recalculating every measure with immense consideration to tempo and dynamics. The EP's second tune
"mur"
sounds similar in arrangement, tone, and rhythm to
's opening tune
"Aurora."
concludes with a very loose, very skeletal reinterpretation of
's
"Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,"
which was the theme to a 1983
David Bowie
movie with the same title. It's easy to see why none of these tracks were on the initial two albums, as none of them really could be included and flow along with the initial sequencing easily. But for fans of their collaboration wanting more it's a delight to hear even the outtakes from these two
electronic
music pioneers past and present.~ Rob Theakston