Raku Sigifatti

Featuring: Taku Sugimoto, Radu Malfatti

Vienna resident Radu Malfatti, who turns 60 in December, is a trombonist and composer with a long and impressive career. In the nineties he established the unique compositional/improvisational style, using very few sounds, that he continues to develop. Thirty-something guitarist Taku Sugimoto has since the late nineties followed a similar path, pursuing a playing style marked by extreme sonic spareness. His work has received critical acclaim in Japan and abroad and has greatly influenced many young Japanese musicians. Their 20-plus-year age difference notwithstanding, these two artists have made a powerful impact with their duo performances in Austria and their first Japan tour last December 2002. Futatsu is a two-CD set bringing together one studio piece and two live-performance recordings. The former is a mix (by Malfatti) of recordings the two made separately this year in Tokyo and Vienna. The live recordings are of performances that took place in 2003 in Vienna and on the 2002 Japan tour. In the studio work, sounds are set down one by one on a background of absolute silence. Despite settings that take in background noise and the sound of passing cars, their live performances are as quiet as ever. This amazing recording will give you a new perspective on the relationship between sound and silence.