Sundaze 2113

 Hello, hope you enjoyed that extra hour of sleep, i needed it to make some sense of today's artist discography, aliasses, lots of different co-productions and all against a back drop of his installations' a hard working man indeed


Carsten Nicolai (18 September 1965), also known as Alva Noto, is a German musician and visual artist. He is a member of the music groups Diamond Version with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ryoji Ikeda, ANBB with Blixa Bargeld, ALPHABET with Anne-James Chaton. Opto with Thomas Knak, and Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto with whom he composed the score for the 2015 film The Revenant.




Carsten Nicolai, born 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, is a German artist and musician based in Berlin. He is part of an artist generation who works intensively in the transitional area between music, art and science. In his work he seeks to overcome the separation of the sensory perceptions of man by making scientific phenomenons like sound and light frequencies perceivable for both eyes and ears. Influenced by scientific reference systems, Nicolai often engages mathematic patterns such as grids and codes, as well as error, random and self-organizing structures. His installations have a minimalistic aesthetic that by its elegance and consistency is highly intriguing. After his participation in important international exhibitions like documenta X and the 49th and 50th Venice Biennale, Nicolai’s works were shown worldwide in extensive solo and group exhibitions.

His artistic œuvre echoes in his work as a musician. For his musical outputs he uses the pseudonym Alva Noto. With a strong adherence to reductionism he leads his sound experiments into the field of electronic music creating his own code of signs, acoustics and visual symbols. Together with Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider he is co-founder of the label 'raster-noton. archiv für ton und nichtton'. Diverse musical projects include remarkable collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryoji Ikeda (cyclo.), Blixa Bargeld or Mika Vainio. Nicolai toured extensively as Alva Noto through Europe, Asia, South America and the US. Among others, he performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London. Most recently Nicolai scored the music for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s newest film, 'The Revenant' which has been nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Award.

biography
lives and works in Berlin and Chemnitz, Germany
1965    born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, GDR
1985-90    Study of landscape architecture. Dresden, Germany
1992    Co-founder of the project Voxxx-Kultur- und Kommunikationszentrum, Chemnitz, Germany
1994    Foundation of noton.archiv für ton und nichtton
1999    Label fusion to raster-noton
2015    Professorship in art with focus on digital and time-based media, Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
Prizes / Scholarships
2014    17th Japan Media Arts Festival, Grand Prize (Art Division), Japan (crt mgn installation)
2012    Giga-Hertz-Award, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (cyclo. id publication with ryoji ikeda)
2007    Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy
     Zurich Prize, Zurich, Switzerland
2003    Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, USA
2001    prize ars electronica, golden nica, Linz, Austria (polar installation with marko peljhan)
2000    f6-philip morris, graphic prize, Dresden, Germany
     prize ars electronica, golden nica, Linz, Austria (20' to 2000 project)
1990    Jürgen Ponto prize, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Artworks in Public Space
2015    chroma actor, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
2011    lfo spectrum, Olympic Park, London, UK
2010    monitor, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, UK
     autor, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany (temporary)
2009    poly stella, Kasumigaseki Building Plaza, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
     pionier ll, Piazza Plebiscito, Naples, Italy (temporary)
2006    polylit, Kleiner Schlossplatz, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany
2005    frequenz (milch), Tramhaltestelle, Hauptbahnhof Leipzig, Germany


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Alva Noto is digital sound and visual artist Carsten Nicolai, aka Noto, head of the Noton half of Germany's Raster-Noton cooperative label now known simply as Raster Music. This disc is brought to us by fellow German electronic label Mille Plateaux and is referred to by them as being of the "digital processing" style. The 10 untitled tracks are a continuous suite of minimalist compositions constructed of the familiar sounds that seem to naturally emanate from everyone and everywhere in Germany these days. For nearly 50 minutes Nicolai precisely codes structured, layered loops of clicks, pops, artifacts, "beats", waves, tones, pulses, static, silence and noise into pleasant and listenable mini(mal) symphonies. The active evolution of each piece is both on a macro and micro level and the stereo field is fully explored ... attentive headphone listening ensures the full effect. And though the sounds are similar throughout, there's plenty of variation in how they are presented within each track and from track to track, this along with sharp composition skills are the keys to maintaining my interest. Nicolai is simply one of the most talented in the field. The title literally means "an original model on which something is patterned" so I can only assume that these prototypes will spawn more in the near future



<a href="https://multiup.org/99fe01e63e1e722b9873d2fbb3a83fc7">   Alva Noto - Prototypes  </a> ( flac 247mb)

01."Untitled"    0:55
02."Untitled"    7:25
03."Untitled"    4:03
04."Untitled"    5:23
05."Untitled"    0:50
06."Untitled"    6:58
07."Untitled"    5:16
08."Untitled"    5:35
09."Untitled"    6:17
10."Untitled"    7:01


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Mika Vainio and .Noto present us with a truly heavyweight clicks'n'cuts soundclash. As can be expected, conventional harmony has been obliterated, what remains are atomised fragments of noise: low-end rumbles, high-end bleeps, jagged flashes of rhythmless percussive pops and crackles and skipping glitch-outs.

Over the course of an hour's worth of computerised hums and tones, an unsettling, mechanised universe is created: the amplified surface-noise/drone concoction of "Mur" brings to mind a pollution-drenched, fogbound sea; the pitter-patter of "Beispiel Drei" naturally brings to mind Berlin's rain-sodden footpaths albeit clogged up with a thousand shuffling androids; and "Süsssonor" is the theme music for a closed circuit TV camera movie yet to be made. This is ugly sound... oppressive and claustrophic, harsh and intrusive, it'll never top the pop charts or provide the soundtrack for a love affair. There is something compelling here though, a pulse... a crackle... a rhythm... I'm not sure, something almost indefinable...



<a href="http://depositfiles.com/files/vlfaceg71"> O + Noto - Wohltemperiert  </a> ( flac 287mb)

01 Los 0:15
02 Hain 5:41
03 Mur 7:24
04 Beispiel Drei 1:53
05 Melodie 6:26
06 Beispiel Zwei 4:08
07 Beispiel Eins Plus 1:07
08 Knödeltraum 3:59
09 Mur Rückkehr 8:14
10 Grille 7:55
11 Süsssonor 7:17
12 Beispiel Rausch Vier 4:00
13 Struktur 0:22
14 Ems 0:42
15 Swielichtmelodie 1:27

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Transform is the second studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released on September 4, 2001 via Mille Plateaux label. The album was re-released in 2008 via Raster-Noton label. The album is the first part of Alva Noto's Transall series, along with the EPs Transrapid, Transspray, and Transvision (2001–2006).

Mark Richard-San of Pitchfork wrote "Nicolai's keen sense of rhythm is the first thing you'll notice about Transform ... While Transform is a solid success on its own terms, the record lacks a certain spark that might push it into greatness. There are no moments of wonder, where you pause and listen closer, straining to understand how something so little could affect you so much. It is possible to achieve the sublime with these limited ingredients (see Ikeda, for one), but Transform is cleaner than a whistle, clearer than a bell, and purer than a fresh snowfall on a Canadian Rockies mountaintop. Yet its beats are heavier than a howitzer’s. Go figure.



<a href="https://www.imagenetz.de/Eu66a">   Alva Noto - Transform </a> ( flac 319mb)

01 m 01 5:49
02 m 02 3:37
03 m 03 10:09
04 m 04 6:26
05 m 05 4:43
06 m 06 5:36
07 m 07 4:58
08 m 08 5:27
09 m 09 7:45
10 m 10 2:41

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Classic material from the Raster Noton vaults, this first full-length collaboration between Carsten Nicolai and Thomas Knak finds both artists at the very height of their powers. There's a level of focus on this album that allows the whole experiment to gel together far more convincingly than on the follow-up album released only a year or two back. Bringing to mind Transform-era Alva Noto and Possible-era Opiate these tracks seamlessly integrate subtle, elemental electronic melodies into the kind of sterilised rhythmic frameworks Nicolai made his name with. That said, Knak isn't just here to provide a tuneful foil to the Alva Noto clicks+cuts machine - he can glitch it up with the best, serving up dub chamber echo sparks to add a more analogue, physical slant on the prickly micro beats. It's really wonderful to hear this again, and it surely stands as a considerable achievement that even six years on from its release this music still sounds like a cutting edge piece of electronica. 'Opto File 1' is just magical: the warm crackle of those beats and the gradual hum of undulating chords sounds like an orchestra of fluorescent tubes switching themselves on and off with some freakishly musical outcome. Awesome.



<a href="https://mir.cr/LIA4KF0C">   Alva Noto & Opiate - Opto Files.</a> ( flac 195b)

01 Opto File 1 5:08
02 Opto File 2 17:40
03 Opto File 3 7:55
04 Opto File 4 2:34


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Between January and April 2003 Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) and Thomas Knak (Opiate) produced their “2nd” Opto collaboration. The work was initially commissioned in Japan for a clothing line inspired by the forest theme. As part of a commissioned work, the music had to sound organic and reproduce a more melodic feeling compared to the first Opto release (Opto Files, Raster-Noton, in 2001). During the same time, Nicolai found an old and damaged cassette in a forest located in the North East part of Berlin. The tape contained nearly inaudible lo-fi recordings of guitar pieces. The forest ambience and the old guitar recordings became the template for “2nd”. When collaborating on their first Opto album, the two artists exchanged audio files back and forth from their respective studios in Berlin and Copenhagen. This process became part of the concept for “2nd”. After received assistance to restore the recordings from the magnetic audiotape, Nicolai exchanged the guitar’s sound files with Thomas who started working on the beat structure and added field-recordings of a forest near his studio. The recording process of the tracks was made at different hours across two days – a process which inspired the track titles. The album can be listened in one take as an extended track lasting 48 hours and 40 min, or by selecting the melodic and “daylight” beats from the moodier and static night productions. In “2nd”, DSP and glitch meet the traditional way of sampling concrete sounds.



<a href="https://multiup.org/70a7f11afc19041e27b1fd9375ba6c5f">   Alva Noto & Opiate - Opto 2nd.</a> 243mb

01 04.34 a.m. (4:26)
02 10.45 a.m. (5:33)
03 02.12 p.m. (3:53)
04 06.18 p.m. (2:54)
05 10.11 p.m. (5:16)
06 05.10 a.m. (5:37)
07 11.33 a.m. (4:20)
08 04.24 p.m. (3:01)
09 08.07 p.m. (3:49)
10 11.45 p.m. (13:04)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx