Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto – Vrioon (2xLP)

Vrioon was Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto's debut co-op album, released in 2002 and now remastered. A minimalist album, it is characterized by an unusually experimental sound driven by piano and distorted, clipped samples - a sound Sakamoto and Noto also experimented with in Insen in 2005. Over a series of five albums, Vrioon (2002), Insen (2005), Revep (2006), utp (2008) and summvs (2011), the duo have explored the fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds into a meditative whole that is at once expressive, breathy and precisely constructed.