Alva Noto, Andy Moor & Anne-James Chaton - Decade

Documenting a collaboration between poet Anne-James Chaton, guitarist Andy Moor and Raster-Noton boss Carsten 'Alva Noto' Nicolai. Chaton's clipped, monotone French delivery gives the whole work the feel of a post-Kraftwerk cold wave or industrial record - you could be fooled into thinking 'Calculus' or 'In The ISS" had been taken from an old Doxa-Sinistra tape, were the production not so crisp, punchy and spotless. Nicolai supplies a terrifically minimalist but dynamic backdrop for Chaton's words, its droning ambience punctuated with bullet-like percussion (the bolshiest number, 'Back In Town', sounds like Von Sudenfed gone Gallic), but the real star of the show is The Ex's Andy Moor, whose guitar parts, as treated and arranged by Nicolai, are just incredible, whether channelling atonal drone-metal ('On Stage') or something altogether more minimalist and textural ('Nihon No Tabi').

Tracklisting