Fennesz & Sakamoto: Cendre

Label: Touch

This is one of the most beautiful and shattering records of the year. The first full-length collaboration between electronic frontiersman Christian Fennesz and prolific composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cendre is a deeply textured, melodic and hushed record. Throughout, Fennesz’s prickly static and synthesized drones provide an intricate counterpoint to Sakamoto’s suspended, Eno-esque piano overtures. The beauty of this album lies in the details, and the result is an ever-evolving soundscape of staggering emotional range. The tracks delve into dark territory at times with subdued, brooding abrasion and eerie chord changes, but unfailingly resurface again into bright, static-drenched bliss. As far as ambient music goes, Fennesz and Sakamoto have produced an album that is both haunting and heartbreaking. (Dan)