Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto: new album “12 Conversations” on the way – Listen to the single “Conversation 3”

A new chapter emerges in the collaboration between the late Japanese master Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto. It's called "12 Conversations", a new collaborative album set for release on September 18, 2026 via the NOTON label. The record marks the final chapter of one of the most influential partnerships in contemporary music, born in the early 2000s and capable of redefining the dialogue between piano, electronics, ambient and minimalism.
Over the years, the Japanese composer and Carsten Nicolai, better known as Alva Noto, built a unique language, one in which Sakamoto's melodic, cinematic sensibility intertwined with the German musician's electronic abstraction and sonic rigor. A delicate balance, suspended between emotion and research, that gave rise to some of the most celebrated works in contemporary experimental music.

"12 Conversations" gathers a series of musical exchanges recorded between November and December 2022, during the same creative period that produced "12", the last solo album Sakamoto released before his passing. Those recordings weren't originally intended to become a standalone record: only after completing "12" did the two artists decide to turn that material into an independent work, highlighting its intimate, spontaneous and deeply experimental character. According to the album's press notes, the project reflects the vitality and curiosity that fuelled more than twenty years of collaboration. The compositions emerge from an open creative process built on mutual listening, in which sounds continually expand, shift and transform. Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue meant to outlive Sakamoto's physical presence, the record also fulfils the Japanese composer's wish not to leave these recordings locked away in an archive, but to share them as a lasting testament to their partnership.

The album is preceded by its first single, "Conversation 3", already available (listen above). A second track, "Conversation 6", will be released on August 26, while the full album arrives on September 18 on vinyl, CD and digital formats. In Japan it will be distributed through the commmons label, founded by Ryuichi Sakamoto himself. Pre-orders for the physical editions are already open.

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