The multi-media work Utp_ by the Japanese composer and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and the installation artist Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto was created in 2007 on the occasion of the 400-year anniversary of the city of Mannheim. Its world premiere was given by the Ensemble Modern at the National Theatre in Mannheim and combined images, acoustic sounds, electronics and improvisation. For the performance the music was accompanied by a visual score projecting computer-generated amorphous structures resulting from complex mathematical colour progressions. The work, whose title is deducted from the word “utopia,” consists in slow-paced tableaux of stretched out octaves and skeletal motives. Originally released on a CD+DVD set, the CD included a concert stereo version of the 75-minute work, while the DVD included a video of performance in 5.1 surround sound and a 40-minute “making of” with interviews of the artists and musicians.

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