While everyone went crazy over Carsten Nicolai’s work with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s piano, I thought they were missing out on this. Sure, everything sounds more emotional once it comes from an organic instrument, a greater challenge would be to get that same sort of emotional response from delicate electronics.
“For” sets out to do just that. Later, he’d follow up with these more melodic, less rhythm based songs in Xerrox 1 and 2. But when I first heard these, I was shocked. Hearing him move away from his natural environment of harsh clicks, cuts, and general noise was pretty shocking.
Shock still plays a part in this, often with the songs starting out the way much of his better-known work is. “Counter” plays to that effect, working its way up to screeching hiss. From there, you hear a naïve, stumbling melody. Those same light touches are heard throughout “Station Remo” and “Transit”. Others use high pitches to get the melody across, often over an extended period of time.
Apparently these all are dedicated to various composers. I’d be curious which composer was the inspiration for “JR” easily the most innocent and child-like of all the songs on here. This one sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in a PBS commercial for Sesame Street.
Put simply, these songs are grand, and despite the fact they were written over an extended period of time, they form into a coherent whole.