with "insen", alva noto (aka carsten nicolai) and ryuichi sakamoto continue their collaboration which started with "vrioon". The debut album released on raster-noton in 2003 was voted record of the year 2004 in the electronica category by british magazine "the wire". particular interest was shown in nicolai's creation towards a new synergy of acoustic piano and digital post production that had not witnessed before, in his approach and interpretation of sakamoto's piano clusters.

the strict splitting of the composition process on this record (piano: sakamoto; production and additional sounds: nicolai) reminds one of the debut album. however, "insen" carries a kind of "transcendental aura" of an early morning meditatory exercise – but at the same time avoiding the field of new age philosophy. enriched by new elements, this "high-tech meditation" follows a consistent line.

on "vrioon", nicolai's typical sinus sounds counterbalanced sakamoto's piano accords. now, on "insen" nicolai works directly with the piano sounds. he dismantles sakamoto's recordings with a "surgeon-like precision" into micro loops, into its atomic elements. starting with these atoms of sound, he creates a new basis for form, compressing floating rotating rhythm with harmonic sequences, with melodic counterpoints, and laying it underneath the piano tracks. this makes "insen" appear more of a complex experience, although the time-stretched flow, or even the clear lines of the piano stay untouched.

from the sleeve notes one can learn that the album was a dedication to a certain people. created far away from these people, "insen" might be a kind of dialogue. It definitely represents a diary of a stay over several month at leon feuchtwanger's "villa aurora", where a large part of the production as well as the final mixes were completed. the themes and the track titles directly refer to that place, to the times of the day, and the events there. even the colours of the album cover associate the emotions and atmosphere experienced at "villa aurora".

only the track "berlin" was recorded later, with nicolai and sakamoto together, during a session at nicolai's studio in berlin. as a reference to that place, one can hear a flock of birds singing in the background of the recording.

"aveol" closes the album also seen as a diary, with a mysterious beauty. the evolution of piano recording and digital post production were pushed the furthest on this track. the combination reached its (temporary) final point.

transall #03
this release is the third part of the transall cycle. transall approaches with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments.

alva noto a.k.a. carsten nicolai states:
... speed of data-flow is equivalent to the speed of our time. in an era when virtual products of our ideas are expanding, we are simultaneously positioning a calm point in which to settle ourselves.

text, image, vector graphic - storage files, were translated into raw audio data as the source material from which constellations of diffused sound start to form. special emphasis is put on the rhythmic aspect of the digitalised and rasterised data. the tools of their transformation reveal themselves by the structure of the recordings.

by the restricting itself to simple and transparent mechanisms, this process becomes independent from existing standards and gains autonomy. ...

marco peljhan (slo) was approached to accompany the cd with a sleeve note, in regard to the content of the release. the text hopefully allows the audience a wider insight into the themes behind the recordings.
compact disc, 21 min

transall #02
this release is the second part of the transall cycle. transall approaches with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments.

alva noto a.k.a. carsten nicolai states:
... speed of data-flow is equivalent to the speed of our time.
in an era when virtual products of our ideas are expanding, we are simultaneously positioning a calm point in which to settle ourselves.

text, image, vector graphic - storage files, were translated into raw audio data as the source material from which constellations of diffused sound start to form. special emphasis is put on the rhythmic aspect of the digitalised and rasterised data. the tools of their transformation reveal themselves by the structure of the recordings.

by the restricting itself to simple and transparent mechanisms, this process becomes independent from existing standards and gains autonomy. ...

kodwo eshun (uk) was approached to accompany the cd with a sleeve note, in regard to the content of the release. the text hopefully allows the audience a wider insight into the themes behind the recordings.
compact disc, 21 min.

three writers were approached to accompany each part of the trilogy with a sleeve note, in regard to the content of the release. the texts hopefully allow the audience a wider insight into the themes behind the recordings. for #01 transrapid: ulf poschardt (d)

during his first live tour in japan carsten nicolai met ryuichi sakamoto in tokyo. a year after it happened that he was asked to remix material from sakamoto for the japanese magazine Code Unfinished.

"… the material that was given to me was already layered with digital effects. from one little clean piano piece i made the first track. those simple piano chords i combined with a clear rhythm constellation. … somehow ryuichi was very surprised and really liked my work. weeks later he sent me another specially for this project recorded track."

this was the beginning of an almost 2 year process of music exchange and creation. Vrioon is very relaxing, it opens rooms, landscapes blur before listeners eyes. static rhythmic pieces circle round and vary one and the same theme that, with its impressionistic sphere, reminds of soundtracks and ambient compositions.

in this cooperation 2 different generations meet and share the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures.

ruyichi sakamoto can already refer to an enormous productive achievment. in 1978 he founded The Yellow Magic Orchestra together with haruomi hosono and yukihiro takahashi which later went on world tour with Kraftwerk. since 1983 he has been working in the film branch and has written soundtracks for Merry Christmas, Mr. Laurence, The Last Emporer and Little Buddha. he also worked with famous artists such as David Bowie, David Byrne, David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, Robert Wilson and William Burroughs.

Carsten Nicolai can be seen as one of the most significant artist of the new electronic music generation that shows new attempts in sound composing with its radical reduced style. besides several solo releases he also worked with ultra minimalist mika vainio from pansonic and the japanese sound artist ryoji ikeda. carsten nicolai is one of the founders of the label raster-noton that was awarded the Golden Nica for digital music from Ars Electronica in 2000.

on the occasion of new forms series of concerts in 1999 ryoji ikeda and carsten nicolai did their first joint performance at galerie für zeitgenössische kunst in leipzig/ germany - the project cyclo. was founded.
between 1999 and 2001 files were exchanged, material was collected and tracks were made. cyclo sets up a priority on digital quality of the tracks. selective use of automated processes like the overlapping of loops and their falsification through wrong calculation or incorrect condensation algorithms, errors and the translation into rudimentary rhythmic constellations is the result of their work. the errors itself becomes topic of this first release from cyclo.

static 6
thomas knak aka opiate is one of the most acclaimed artists coming from denmark. in the early beginning of the 90ies he started as a dj, establishing himself as one of the first to bring ambient, electronica and drum`n baas to the clubs. as a keyfigure in electronic music field he has been working on several projects like compiling"boredom is deep and mysterious" series with anders remmer (dub tractor) , his own band future 3 and solo as opiate. since 1999 he is running his own label hobby industries. his debut "objects for an ideal home" has been considered as an electronic landmark. among the people to recognize his talent outside danmark are bjork, bomb the bass, piano magic and carsten nicolai aka noto. thomas has since worked with all of them in different collaborations. tracks from future 3 were remixed by people like coldcut.
his release on raster-noton came into being through e-mail conatct. files had been exchanged and the material had been remixed. so an cd with a lyric elements had been created. digital sounds arise "satisfied" abstract melodies without getting lost in playroom-charm. the mixture between notos mathamatic structures and opiates pop-qualities is well done. the ep spreads out a dark warmth which follows the typical static series sound.

Mika Vainio + Carsten Nicolai.

this cd contains 30 tracks combining audio and visual information for tv. the first 20 pieces are line constructs based on impulse frequencies, the last ten are test frequencies from 50-8000 hz and white noise.
for best results please use a »blacktrinitron-tv« from sony, connect the cd-out (chinch) and the television set via »scart« adapter for the s-vhs input.

static 2
is the result of several sessions of frank bretschneider/komet, carsten nicolai/noto and olaf bender/byetone.
completely different to the artists`solo-releases it is more a spontaneous improvisation co-work after live performances they did together. the material was recorded between 1998 and 2000.