For

Throughout the '90s and 2000s, Carsten Nicolai has constantly redefined the boundaries of experimental electronic music, taking the fusion of science and sound to its most extreme limits with high- and low-pitch frequencies and punishing sine tone compositions. More recently, he has also fused the synthetic with the organic through his trilogy of collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto. For Richard Chartier's LINE imprint, Nicolai strips away conceptual frameworks and presents an album of nine compositions bound only by their presentation as audio installations and the notion they are dedicated to someone in particular (hence the album's title). The wonderful thing about For is that it shows Nicolai's versatility as a composer and breaks the usual rigid continuity of Alva Noto Records, with "jr" being the most prominent example, as it quietly fuses melody and rhythm in ways very rare in Nicolai's entire body of work. Definitely one of his most daring works, and a nod of the cap should go to LINE for having the integrity to show another side of one of this century's most underrated artists.