Insen is the second album in an ongoing collaboration between Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and German electronic artist Carsten Nicolai (here credited as Alva Noto). It was released on 20 March 2005 via Raster-Noton label.
The album's core sound is a blend of Sakamoto's impressionist piano melodies and Nicolai's digitally processed beats and sounds. Released in 2005 by Nicolai's Raster-Noton label, it follows the duo's debut album Vrioon, which was named album of the year in 2004 by The Wire magazine.
—Colin Buttimer, BBC
(Break Away) IT consumes your life
Everything you do revolves around it
Is this a privilege or a disaster?
(Break Away)
What once was true
Now seems that it’s fucking foul
Are we closing in on the final hour?
A once red hot flame
Seems to smolder away
So do we carry on
Or watch it slip away
So Break Away- Or see it through
Snap the chains
Is this what we should do
So break away 0 or see it through
Snap the chains
Don’t know what’s wrong
Or what’s right
Day in day out
The sacrifice is immeasurable
The lengths to which
You’ve gone to make this work
Will never be understood
It’s so funny how you can feel on top
Of the world one minute
And want this dead and gone the next
Now let fate take it’s course
You would give your life just to have it all
Can you see
The writing on the wall
Is this what you deserve
For all you have given
Is the end near
Or has paranoia set in
So break away – or see it through
Snap the chains
Is what you should do
So break away – or see it through
Snap the chains
Don’t know what’s wrong
Or what’s right
My vision is so hazy tonight
My minds been diluted with hate
Help me escape
Hey hey
Do you think that this is the end
It seems like that this is the end
So break away – or see it through
Snap the chains
Is that what we should do
So break away – or see it through
Snap the chains
Don’t know what’s wrong
Or what’s right
My minds been diluted with hate