A Minimalist Dream: Alva Noto & Fennesz Turn Sound into Living Matter

From the moment the lights dimmed in the intimate, darkened hall of Archa+, the sense of occasion was immediate. Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) and Fennesz (Christian Fennesz) took to the stage in near-­silence, amid sculpted lighting and spatialized sound, for their collaborative project “Continuum” – a tribute to the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Alva Noto operated a bank of electronics: laptop, custom software, sine-tone generators, glitch processors, and a modular array of delays and granular samplers. His sonic dramaturgy was precise: micro-clicks, static crackle, low-end drones, then sudden bursts of digital percussion. Fennesz worked via electric guitar (often heavily processed), running through re-ampers and digital fx-chains: shimmering delay loops, glitched feedback, sustained harmonics, ambient washes overlaid with cut-up noise.

Together the pair treated the stage as an immersive sound-field: speakers distributed around the venue, lights choreographed to sound bursts, occasional projection mapping. While there was no fixed “setlist” in the conventional sense (no named songs on the programme), the piece unfolded in three broad movements: a hushed opening of near-silence, a middle section of increasing rhythmic momentum (digital beats, clatters, guitar loops), and a concluding section of deceleration, ambient drift, and captured echoes. 

When Fennesz’s guitar looped a simple melodic fragment (just three notes) that gradually stretched into delay-tails, while Noto overlaid micro-rhythms that sounded like digital heartbeats. The interplay felt conversational. Worth noting was the use of spatial sound: in one moment Noto triggered a ping on the left speaker, which slowly migrated right as Fennesz’s guitar feedback folded in – this movement gave a sense of physical space in the hall.

And lighting: faint pulses of white-blue light synchronized with glitch bursts, then warm golden washes when the guitar ambient phase began. The visual design reinforced the emotional shift. Though no explicit “Sakamoto themes” were quoted, the entire performance felt respectful of his ethos–merging human instrument (guitar) and electronic abstraction. Reviewers noted that the project “will be both homage and continuation” of Sakamoto’s experimental path.

Because the piece was improvisation-inspired rather than fixed, the absence of song titles or a printed setlist meant the listener surrendered to the flow rather than anticipating “this next track”. Some attendees expecting more “beat-driven” or recognisable structures might have found the first third austere. Yet that austerity served the tribute well. The venue’s acoustics and staging were excellent: no distortion, clear separation of elements, though the very low drones did cause some faint structural rumble in the seating area for those at the back.

In sum, the Alva Noto & Fennesz concert at Divadlo Archa+ was a powerful evening: technically refined, emotionally resonant, and visually immersive. It reaffirmed both artists as leading voices in experimental electronic-ambient music, capable of creating a ritual-like sound experience that both honours the past (Sakamoto) and pushes into new terrain. For those willing to engage with subtlety and suspension, it was a memorable highlight of the festival.