Nikos Veliotis, Taku Sugimoto, Kazushige Kinoshita & Taku Unami - カルテット (Quartet)

_{2005 | Onkyo, Chamber Music}

Ironically, part of the major appeal is the overall laxness of the recording. Where most live performances try to aim for as little background noise as possible, here you can hear the shuffling of audience members, movement of chairs; even noise beyond the hall seeps its way into the recording with sounds of cars driving past the building present. All of this adds to the immersion, especially during "Music for 4 Stringed Instruments," where this ambience is intensely amplified due to the sparseness of the music itself. And then a string is plucked, stripping the illusion of immersion away, serving as a reminder that you are, in fact, still listening to music, and not in a concert hall somewhere waiting for said music to start.