Alva Noto is a pseudonym of German sound/visual artist Carsten Nicolai. It's difficult to bring into focus the breadth of Nicolai's achievements in the various disciplines he's been involved with since the early '90s, but he is perhaps most well-known in music circles as a co-founder of the groundbreaking Raster-Noton imprint, and his collaborative work with Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The pair has proffered several full-length pieces through Raster-Noton in the past decade, and Nicolai has been no less prolific elsewhere, releasing around ten albums over that time period either solo or in tandem with artists like Opiate and fellow Raster-Noton founders Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider. As with most things Nicolai turns his hand to, the music of Alva Noto is characterized by fierce experimentation. Wild packs of glitches, tone generators, looped oscillators and communication signals are tamed and assembled into sprawling ambient passages and/or rhythmic explorations, the latest of which, univrs, sees release on October 17th.
On RA.276 Nicolai somehow captures the breadth of the Alva Noto sound world in a 51-miute set that moulds the music of Fennesz, Andy Stott, M.I.A., Steve Reich, Nine Inch Nails, Byetone and Donnacha Costello into a coherent whole.
Tracklist
Andy Stott - Execution Byetone - Plastic Star (Sleeparchive remix)
Boys Noize - Rozz Box
Fiedel - Doors To Manual
M.I.A. - The Message
Emptyset - Monad
NHK - Entire Set
Mark Fell - Track 14
Errorsmith
Fennesz - Happy Audio
Ryoji Ikeda - +/-
Angelo Badalamenti - Mr. Roque / Betty's Theme Perspective
Donnacha Costello - Minimise 3
Alva Noto - XerroxTekPart 1
Alva Noto - XerroxTeion
Grischa Lichtenberger - 007_11101lv1b
Alva Noto - UniDeform
SebastiAn - Motor
Nine Inch Nails - The Great Destroyer
Steve Reich - Reed Phase
MMM - Donna
Robert Hood - Minimal, Minimal
Pan Sonic - Teurastamo
Alva Noto - XerroxSoma
