wow. epiphanous, indeed. hearing a bass hum that loud in the main hall of the arts centre was certainly, well, a buzz. we only saw sakamoto from behind with his slow, careful, grey-haired movements. his economy with notes is what i aspire to with words. at one point, a large, thick line spread across the bottom of the screen - from where i sat, it was like it went in one ear and out the other, sakamoto playing in direct reaction to alva noto's minimal graphic wizardry (it was, of course, the other way around. or was it?). other pieces made me think of galaxies and stars, or the loading screen from my early days with a sinclair spectrum (a 300 baud bitstream rendered around the border of the display area - in later years, turbo loaders made thinner lines, faster bits). each piece seemed to build on the previous one, until (the final piece, before encores) we had a cacophony of spinning lines and near-static from mr nicolai, with sakamoto providing a dark, rumbling piano beat to match. it was fabulous. even if i had seen him 10 years ago when he was last here, i'd never have expected this. i wonder, though, how the other punters found it - did they know what they were in for? it's not like the albums are just sitting around in shops.