'Summvs' is the fifth collaboration album of Carsten Nicolai / Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and surely marks a highpoint in the two artists' extensive history of working together.

Comparing this to their first joint effort, 'Vrioon' from 2002, it becomes immediately apparent how much Nicolai and Sakamoto have attuned their methods of music making to each other's distinct styles.

Never before have Nicolai's digital glitch and micro-sampling techniques integrated as tightly with Sakaomoto's piano playing.

Not only in a rhythmical, but also in a harmonical sense, with hypnotic bleeps and finely tuned drones alternately enveloping and contrasting the album's piano parts. It is this interplay of the digital and organic that Nicolai and Sakamoto have perfected on 'Summvs', building a 'sum' from the 'versus' just as the title suggests.

The album's stand-out moment is perhaps its longest track, the magically emotive 'Naono', but also the sparse rhythmical finesse of 'Pioneer IOO', or Sakamoto's use of a rare microtonal piano on the 'Microon' pieces prove equally memorable.

Whether you have followed the works of Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto closely or you are in fact new to their music, 'Summvs' will strike you as a fantastic album bringing together digital and analogue music. Essential listening.