Fennesz/Sakamoto
Cendre
Touch 2007

01. Oto
02. Aware
03. Haru
04. Trace
05. Kuni
06. Mono
07. Kokoro
08. Cendre
09. Amorph
10. Glow
11. Abyss

There's not any criticism I could, practically speaking, add to Cendre. It has leaked around, been bought and talked about for months now, but that's not the main reason either. Like Vrioon before, Cendre just seems devoid of criticism. Nothing irritating, nothing clearly designed. How is it possible to designate direction without the slightest frame of reference? Perhaps it's possible to estimate infinity or specify the volume of the constantly expanding universe? A "cosmic trip" then? Uhm, quite close... As if floating in weightlessness, not knowing where the top and where the bottom is, where do you stand, how fast or slow time flows by. Static space is infinite. Euphoria and oblivion. Completely unpredictably/elusively alienated from reality - might the best thing about this kind of music. The only "living" sound comes out of the piano's triads and chords, appearing/disappearing with enviable regularity, very unhurried, in their involuntary forms; dissolved in void and reappearing from nowhere and anywhere.

So what use is it to talk about such music in its so "dissolved" state of aggregation? To perceive the mood, it would be necessary to present the album in form of some other, stronger metaphors, similes, which would transmit the altered, cold environment; the sense of tranquility, close to nirvana. Cosmic analogies I did not have to look for - they asserted themselves far too obviously. But then, listening again, I think it is possible to approach the understanding of a multitude of means. With the most philosophical of calms.

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>> love it, buy it (Touch)