PRE-ORDER: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto "12 Conversations" 2xLP

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER: We expect this to ship on or around SEPTEMBER 18th, 2026. Any items ordered with this will be held until they can ship together. If you need other items faster please place a separate order for those items. 

Double LP version. NOTON presents 12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto. The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skillful and sensitive electronic detailing. Their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety. 12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right. The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation -- sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening. Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honous Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.

street date 9/18/2026