FORMAT: 12”

GENRE/S: House, Deep House

TRACKLIST:
A. Francis Harris: You Can Always Leave (Curtains) feat. Gry Bagøien (DJ Sprinkles Remix)
B. Frank & Tony with DJ Sprinkles: Companion

SHORT INFO:
From the acclaimed remix of Francis Harris single You Can Always Leave (Curtains) to her collaboration with Frank & Tony on the heavily sought after Companion, DJ Sprinkles indelible touch has become legendary.
You Can Always Leave (Curtains) feat. Gry Bagøien (DJ Sprinkles Remix) was originally released on the vinyl only single You Can Always Leave in 2013. The original appeared on Francis Harris album Minutes Of Sleep (2014) and features the vocals of danish singer Gry Bagoien alongside Greg Paulus on trumpet.
Likewiese Companion was released vinly-only on the first out of three EPs that formed Frank & Tony's debut album You Go Girl in 2014.
Both vinyl releases have been out of print since their initial release and now, after much demand, Scissor & Thread presents a limited re-issue including new DJ Sprinkles remasters.














Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

2LP | 2 × 12 Inch ‘Black’ Vinyl, 33.3 rpm, Tip-on Cover, Special Varnish

Available in the following Territories: Wordwide minus Japan & Korea

NOTON is pleased to announce12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto to be released on 18 September 2026.

The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skilful and sensitive electronic detailing.
Each successive project further deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs), to their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a wholly improvised performance inside Philip Johnson's iconic Connecticut landmark, in which the pair fixed contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a document of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House.

Across these works, their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety.
12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right.
The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation - sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening.

Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honours Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.


Carsten Nicolai writes:
"A heavy breath can be heard in the recordings. Yet this work is not about remembrance but continuation, vitality, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation that shaped an artistic relationship over decades.
The twelve pieces we exchanged in November and December 2022 possess extraordinary density: sounds expanded, altered, recontextualized. Initially, every intervention felt almost inappropriate. Yet this was part of our openness and trust: adding, shifting and radically yet softly transforming.
Even in these final exchanges, plans for future projects continued to take shape, mindful of finite yet firmly believing in the power of new ideas. We chose the name Conversations, which has become a space of memory and vision, where past, present and future intertwine.
For a long time, releasing this music seemed impossible. The loss felt too sudden, and the emotional connection too profound. As time passed, it became clear that these twelve musical encounters should have life outside the archive. To honor Ryuichi's wish, these pieces are now being released as the continuation of a dialogue that extends beyond the physical."

The first single, Conversation 3, will be released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The second single, Conversation 6, will be be released on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
12 Conversations will be available worldwide on vinyl, CD and digitally. A Japanese edition will be available on Ryuichi Sakamoto's commons.

Tracklist

1. Conversation 1
2. Conversation 2
3. Conversation 3
4. Conversation 4
5.Conversation 5
6. Conversation 6
7. Conversation 7
8. Conversation 8
9. Conversation 9 Part I
10. Conversation 9 Part II
11. Conversation 9 Part III
12. Conversation 9 Part IV
13. Conversation 9 Part V
14. Conversation 10
15. Conversation 11
16. Conversation 12


Album art designed by Carsten Nicolai & Nibo.

Mastered by: Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering, Berlin (2026)
Voice on Track 07: Emma Maeda
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke, Primal Sound
Press release text: Maria Orciuoli
Special thanks: Norika Sora, Alec Fellman, Sherry Kennedy, Erin Gleeson
© & P: 2026 NOTON. Archiv für Ton und Nichtton. All rights reserved.

Tracklisting
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 1

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 1
Playtime: 00:06:50
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600003
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 2

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 2
Playtime: 00:05:42
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600004
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 3

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 3
Playtime: 00:05:53
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600005
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 4

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 4
Playtime: 00:08:56
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600006
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 5

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 5
Playtime: 00:06:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600007
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 6

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 6
Playtime: 00:07:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600008
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 7

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 7
Playtime: 00:10:31
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600009
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 8

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 8
Playtime: 00:03:20
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600010
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 9

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part I
Playtime: 00:01:12
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600011
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 10

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part II
Playtime: 00:03:27
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600012
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 11

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part III
Playtime: 00:00:51
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600013
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 12

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part IV
Playtime: 00:02:15
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600014
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 13

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part V
Playtime: 00:00:39
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600015
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 14

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 10
Playtime: 00:03:01
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600016
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 15

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 11
Playtime: 00:04:35
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600017
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 16

Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 12
Playtime: 00:02:41
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600018
(P):

Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------



Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Territories: WORLD MINUS US,CA,UK

LP, LTD Transparent Clear Vinyl

- First pressing (500 copies worldwide)

- Limited Edition Transparent Clear Vinyl
- Printed on heavyweight board outer sleeve
- Vinyl comes in black poly-lined protective bag
- Hype front sticker
- Vinyl pressed at Optimal media GmbH


2. GENRE/S: Ambient/Balearic/Kraut/Electro

3. FOR MUSIC FANS OF: Tara Clerkin Trio, Arthur Russell, Mabe Fratti, Visible Cloaks

4. TRACKLISTS:

A

1. Chords
2. Clouds
3. Hymn
4. Mornings with Rita
5. Routine I


B

1. Silence
2. Home I
3. Home II
4. Reunion
5. Sweden Organ


5. SHORT INFO:

Jason Dungan (aka Blue Lake) and Johan Carøe find beauty in the rhythms
and repetitions of domestic life for collaborative album, 'Routine' - out September 25

Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalists Jason Dungan and Johan Carøe didn't set out to make an album. Instead, as the title 'Routine' suggests, they found their way there through a process of habitual making and listening, developing an intuitive musical language to reflect the dreamlike meanderings and creative play of life's quiet moments. 'Routine' blends pop orientated sounds, Avant-garde minimalism, folk and new age with the emotive depth of film-score.

Their meeting was not entirely coincidental. Previously in bands such as Squares and Triangles, Jason Dungan has since recorded multiple albums under the moniker Blue Lake, including the lauded 'Sun Arcs', pursuing his passion for self-built percussion and multi-string instruments. Johan Carøe meanwhile is a composer whose film soundtrack work has seen him collaborate with Angelo Badalamenti, Arp, and Sofie Birch, at whose Andersabo residency (curated by Dungan) the pair first met, resulting in the highly praised album 'Repair Techniques' written by Birch and Carøe.

'Routine' emerged organically over many years against the backdrop of great personal change. As Carøe said goodbye to his father and welcomed his first child, the pair sent each other fragments of melodies and patterns, working up responses when time allowed to assemble a sonic palette that combined acoustic instrumentation of zither, clarinet, cello, saxophone (among others) with the textures of tape, drum machine and Yamaha DX7 synth. Inspired by the vulnerability and DIY ethos of Arthur Russell's home recordings, the vision of labels like Disques de Crepescule, and the art pop, experimentation inherent to late '70s and early '80s recordings from NYC and Japan alike, Dungan and Carøe conjured new forms for their folk, leftfield pop and avant garde influences from the low-lit living rooms of Copenhagen and rural Sweden. "I'm very interested in the ways in which music and art emerge from our wider experiences as people, workers, parents and in the daydreaming activity of making music," Dungan explains of a process which allowed the duo's individual styles to drift apart and merge together seamlessly. "I think the process was definitely capturing moments in time, but over a long time," Carøe adds. "It was a bit like improvisation, but with time stretched."

The music floats with grace and humility, remaining sophisticated yet acutely introverted.
Whether on 'Clouds', where soft layers of zither and clarinet are moved along by a featherlight bass riff and the hypnotic clip-clop of the primitive groovebox, or the gentle grandeur of cello rising and falling through 'Routine 1', the album reveals itself over 10 instrumental tracks, evoking the ineffable calm that descends when the light changes and the world turns inwards. The act of time passing became a key creative ingredient to the evolution of the album, enriched with the exciting challenge to transform their passing rounds of home recordings via a slow release musical dialogue. Jason found creative moments in the twilight hours to lay down zither, melodica, acoustic guitar to name but few, while Johan utilising "line-in and headphones" would manipulate, stretch and pitch Jason's melodic pathways during newly born naptimes.

Carøe rhythmically plucks and slides the stringed cello instrument, leaving palpable foundations on 'Hymn' and 'Chords', in a treated, stylistic approach akin to Mabe Fratti, while 'Silence' draws to a close with a gospel touch. Dungan's harp-motion zither flourishes reveal more classical connotations on 'Reunion' with inspiration of Bedroom Community's Nico Muhly as organs rise with Moogs, culminating with a climatic choral outro from friend, mezzo-soprano Anna Caroline Olesen.

'Routine' then is their first collaboration, an album of deep and sincere reflection with inviting overtones that gesture with unrushed authenticity. A document of a new-found friendship that opens a window into the most personal of spaces, where the daily practices of music and life exist side-by-side to wondrous effect.



6. VITAL SALES POINTS:

- PR + Radio campaign by 9PR (UK/USA) / Dense PR + Radio campaign (EU)


Selected Press

"Magical in its simplicity and all the more compelling for what's just out of frame." - Pitchfork (Blue Lake)


"Uniquley traverses the intersection between Ambient and Folk with a distinct nordic aesthetic" - NPR, Best New Music Friday (Blue Lake)


"Shimmering like dappled sun on water" - The Quietus (Blue Lake)

"One of those rare albums that impresses with minimal gestures" - HHV (Sofie Birch & Johan Carøe)


Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More