Actress & Suzanne Ciani – Concrète Waves

Actress and Suzanne Ciani: a pairing I’d never have pictured, yet one that makes immediate sense. Two Americans, a generation apart — Ciani a pioneer of electronic music, Actress one of its most singular contemporary voices. Co-commissioned by the Barbican in London and Barcelona’s Sónar, their transgenerational collaboration crystallises into Concrète Waves, a live album that sets his “R&B concrète” in creative friction with her modular work, rooted in her 1982 record Seven Waves. A brutalist poetry: Buchla stormclouds, faltering rhythms, industrial clangs giving way to ribbons of analogue synth. Ghostly, weightless — the kind of listening experience that strips away your bearings. The release also marks the return of the elusive Werkdiscs, Actress’s imprint dormant for years. Worth listening out for.