Artist : Alva Noto
Title : For 2
Genre : Electronic
Year : 2010
Date : 03/2010
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 12
Label : Line
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 56:12 min
Size : 71,9 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.garment 06:36
02.villa aurora 01:49
03.pax 00:54
04.argonaut 07:35
05.stalker 05:06
06.sonolumi 04:10
07.interim 02:49
08.t3 07:20
09.early winter 04:29
10.anthem berlin 06:40
11.ans 01:12
12.argonaut-version 07:32
-------
56:12 min
Four years after the release of his
dedicatory for record (LINE_026),
Carsten Nicolai as alva noto returned to
assemble a second recording of
compositions devoted to a number of
creative figures including industrial
designer Dieter Rams, filmmaker Andrei
Tarkovsky and German dramatist Heiner
Mⁿller.
Opener "garment", inspired by a
translucent textile designed in
connecting sections, may serve well as a
metaphor for this collection of tracks
that take as their source of inspiration
shifting zones and in-between places,
links in chain-letter music, luminous
bubbles, fragments of orchestral
strings, and slowly decaying resonances.
In "anthem berlin" alva noto delivers a
national anthem for artists Carl Michael
von Hausswolf's and Leif Elggren's
fictional land of Elgaland-Vargaland.
Rather than relying on traditional
orchestration, he snaps off a section of
a marching band's snare drum roll and
lets the percussive rattle reverberate
to a tonal hum. "ans" acknowledges
Russian Evgeny Murzin's research into
obtaining sound from a visible image and
vice versaùa central aspect of Carsten
Nicolai's work as a visual artist. For
this recording, alva noto was invited to
draw onto the glass plate of the ANS
synthesizer, producing the modulating
sound heard on the composition.
"interim" and "t3" were composed for a
prize-giving ceremony in honor of
designer Dieter Rams. Performed live at
the event, the background audio layers
of "interim" recalled the alva noto
xerrox project in which peripheral
sounds are elevated to a conscious
composition. In "villa aurora" we find
ourselves among the dying moments of a
held chord, until seconds later the lid
of the piano is dropped shut, amputating
its echo forever.
As we listen we are almost aware of this
record having breath, as a watchful
vacuum draws in influences before
exhaling them back into the music. This
ebb and flow marks time over for 2's
reference points, reminding us that
creativity is perceptive of that which
lies at its edges and, similar to
language, absorbs it within. ù Andrew
Cannon
02: field recording with piano decay
recorded at Villa Aurora / Pacific
Palisades. 03: for Ryuichi Sakamoto's
Chain Music. 04: commissioned by BCN
216. 06: recorded for Evelina Domnitch
and Dmity GelfandÆs Camera Lucida
project involving the phenomena of
sonoluminescence (DVD LINE_030). 07+08:
composed for the prize ceremony of the
German Design Award for Dieter Rams. 09:
contains a sample of Phill Niblockù
thanks Phill. 10: national anthem for
the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargalandù
premiered at Haus der Kulturen der Welt,
Berlin on October 21, 2006. 11: drawing
recorded live with the ANS Synthesizer
at Theremin Center, Moscow State
Conservatory. 12: arrangement by Max
Knoth. Cover image: Carsten Nicolai.
milch 110 Hz. 2000 / courtesy Galerie
EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin and
PaceWildenstein.
Carsten Nicolai (a.k.a noto / alva noto
/ aleph), lives and works in berlin and
chemnitz, germany.
"in Nicolai's work neither music nor
visual art are by-products of one
anotherùthe one calls the other into
being"
û Rob Young, Modern Painters, 2006
Berlin based visual artist/electronic
musician Carsten Nicolai performs and
records using the pseudonyms noto and
alva noto. Described as 'metal machine
music of a most beautiful kind',
Nicolai's powerfully synaesthetic live
performances combine minimal electronic
sounds and real-time visualisations.
Nicolai's works captivate consistently
through their elegance, simplicity and
cool technicism. alva noto has performed
in many of the world's most prestigious
spaces and has won a number of highly
regarded prizes for art and electronic
music. He has collaborated with the
likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Blixa
Bargeld, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio,
Michael Nyman and Thomas Knak. With Olaf
Bender and Frank Bretschneider he
founded the pioneering label
'supergroup' Signal.
In my opinion the emphasis of self-
generating processes is a reaction to
the claim to plan everything. Many of my
works underlie a rule and introduce a
model as organiszing sceme to recognize
chaotic movements. I am interested in
both moments, they lie really close
together. (...) A major impact on my
work had the article Active mutations of
self-reproducing networks, machnes and
tapes (1996) by Takashi Ikegami and
Takashi Hashimoto. They wrote about loop
strcutures and self-organisation. Loops
get ceated by mathematical processes
whose results at the same time are the
source for new calculations. By constant
re-calculating mistakes occur, build up
changing patterns and become the origin
of new intelligent processes.
ù Carsten Nicolai
http://www.12k.com/line/