Customer Reviews

Cendre

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's a 2007 release that I've been meaning to cover in detail for a while. Touch Music was launched in 1982, initially releasing cassette magazines. Twenty five years later, Touch is at its peak, perfecting their output with carefully selected works by Christian Fennesz, Ryuuichi Sakamoto, Oren Ambarchi, Biosphere, Ryoji Ikeda, Philip Jeck, Chris Watson and Mika Vainio, amongst others. Since the 90s, Fennesz and Sakamoto have performed live, with Sala Santa Cecilia being their first collaborative EP (Touch, 2005), recorded live at Auditorium della Parco Musica for the Romaeuropa Festival. Two years later, the duo got together to compose their first full length LP, Cendre. In between these two releases, Fennesz recorded an album with Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura and Oren Ambarchi, under a collective moniker 4g, titled Cloud (Erstwhile, 2005). Meanwhile, prolific Sakamoto (recording since 1978) released a remix album, Bricolages (Warner Music Japan, 2006) with a collection of reworked tracks by an amazing roster of artists like Alva Noto, Taylor Deupree, Snd, Richard Devine, Slicker and even Craig Armstrong. Needless to say that I was pretty excited to hear what the couple come up with, with such an amazing web of connections and an array of experiences. And Cendre doesn't disappoint. Sakamoto is back at the piano, this time bathed in a warm lush of ambient bliss, as flooded by Fennesz. The reverberations of drone-like pads almost swallow the notes whole, occasionally letting them cut through the descending fog, and shoot up like a sparkling reflection of a dying star. Editors at Boomkat have said it best : "The fact that you're [...] reading this review assumes you're of a certain musical disposition, and if you are in any way interested in the more beautiful things in life, the sensitive yet experimental end of modern music - pay close attention as this album is just about as good as it gets." A modern classical marvel. The latest from Fennesz is Transition EP (Touch, 2008), while Sakamoto released a collaboration with Christopher Willits, titled Ocean Fire (12k, 2008).

Minimal, twinkling piano, treated by a blanket white noise. What could easily be among the best film scores, if it were one.

A really great set of pieces. Sakamoto is in a broken 19th century mode here, playing fragments of phrases which recall the piano music of Debussy and Poulenc (if you've heard his BTTB, you'll know he can go the whole way with this style of composition), a very evocative and sophisticated aesthetic. Fennesz provides a sympathetic background to the piano, eerie and moody, more Venice than Endless Summer.

I have no idea why Pitchfork would refer to Music For Airports but I do think that The Pearl by Eno and Harold Budd is a comparison. Like that record, this is music which really plumbs the sonorities of the piano.

In response to the reviewer above, while Vrioon is pretty awesome, I would say Revep is a bit of a snooze and lacking in inspiration.

Nice cover too.

Take one Chrisitan Fennesz, and add one Sakamoto, and lookie what we got!:

CENDRE

What could this word possibly mean? Well I'll tell you. The word "cen" is the opposite and "dre" is an another opposite, and when we put them together we have the final result. Cendre. Fennesz and Sakamoto's recent collaboration has proven to be very interesting. We have uplifting if not scattered white noise from fennesz's "drone"asions (like donations), and sakamoto's befuddled and sad piano compisitions. Throw 'em both a lapotp and BOOM! It leaves you relaxed and inquisitve. slouched yet perplexed. comfortable and squeaky. challenging and drowsy. It is one of the best albums of the year. Pick it up. It will change your boring afternoons into a fantasy maze of imagination and wonder.

Now doesn't that sound neat

Occasionally Fennesz's hazy embellishments will intoxicatingly mesh with Sakamoto's minor melodies, but for the most part just sounds like two pretentious artists mildly engaging each other's whims.

I had been looking forward to this album for quite a while after hearing a taste of what had promised to be a stunning collab between the legendary Sakamoto and a young, european, electrowizard Christian Fennesz when they released their EP 'Sala Santa Cecelia'. Deja Vu? Not more than a year or two ago Sakamoto was on the run with another young, european electrowizard -- Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto, unleashing the spectacular-future-is-now "Insen" tour that spawned three albums and most probably gave Sakamoto the brainstorm that led to this mess. I am a big fan of both Fennesz and Sakamoto's previous work - the work done independent of one another, but Cendre is very difficult to justify. On one hand, it is harmless, not a moment of this album rises above the threshold to call something 'noisy', and even though the 'songs' are layered with thick white noise, radio static , textures, clicks, cuts, reverb, and just about every other little trick in Fennesz's toolkit, it always manages to come across as very sedate, relaxing music. But while Noto and Sakamoto found an immediate need for each others participation in their endeavours, Fennesz and Sakamoto seem to struggle for ideas, some tracks being reduced to Sakamoto noodling endlessly in search of meaning , or a way to develop or progress the noodling into something larger. But ultimately, their connection gets lost in the static, and instead of any tracks building into anything resembling a cathartic centre, nearly each track builds to a similar washed out centre of noise and sound - cool the first time around but by track three it's a gimmick. By track seven you're sick of it. This is music tied together with a precarious thread - on the outside it is shiny , modern, complete beautifully ambiguous album artwork, and very little information, you are presented with something very digestible and , let's face it, 'cool'. But unlike Brian Eno's 'Music For Airports' , which Pitchfork made the mistake of comparing this to, there is nothing pushing the musical envelope here, just careful , safe meandering through familiar musical waters by two brilliant artists who seem totally content with their present abilities.
To fans and non-fans of this album, I recommend you get your buttskies to the record shot and get a hold of Sakamoto + Noto's albums , 'Vrioon', 'Insen' and 'Re-vep', if you want to see the true field of tension between electronic and non-electronic instruments.