Carsten Nicolai

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^[2] with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider^[3] and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ryoji Ikeda, ANBB with Blixa Bargeld, ALPHABET with Anne-James Chaton,^[4] Opto with Thomas Knak, and Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto with whom he composed the score for the 2015 film The Revenant.

Carsten Nicolai
Nicolai at a performance under his pseudonym Alva Noto (2009)
Background information
Birth name	Carsten Nicolai
Also known as	Aleph-1, Alva Noto, Noto
Born	(1965-09-18) 18 September 1965 (age 57) Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany^[1]
Genres	Electronic music · glitch · microsound · minimal techno · ambient
Instrument(s)	Synthesizer keyboards laptop percussion
Labels	NOTON Raster-Noton Mille Plateaux Line
Website	www.carstennicolai.de

Life and career

Carsten Nicolai was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) of Saxony, GDR in 1965. He studied architecture and landscape design before pursuing art. In 1994 he founded the label NOTON, following which a collaboration with RasterMusic began and by 1999 the two labels had merged into Raster-Noton, which operated until 2017. Returning to the labels origin in 2017, Nicolai runs NOTON separately.^[5]

In 2009 Nicolai wrote the opera Sparkie: Cage and Beyond in collaboration with Michael Nyman.^[6]

Nicolai performed and created installations in many of the world's most prestigious spaces including the Guggenheim, New York, the SF MoMA, Modern Art Oxford, NTT Tokyo, Tate Modern and Venice Biennale, Italy. As a member (and co-founder) of the Raster-Noton label he was responsible for the acclaimed CD series 20 to 2000 that went on to win the Golden Nica prize at Prix Ars Electronica, 2000.^[7]

Carsten Nicolai also works as a visual artist. In 2013, Nicolai participated as a visual artist in Biennale Documenta, an official collateral show of the 55th Venice Biennale of Art.^[8]

Nicolai started his professorship in art with focus on digital and time-based media with Dresden Academy of Fine Arts since 2015.

Nicolai scored the music for Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant. The score was nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, Grammy and Critics' Choice Movie Awards.^[9] In 2018 he created the sound design for Iñárritu’s groundbreaking VR project "Carne y Arena" Flesh and Sand.^[10]

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 2019: Parallax Symmetry, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf^[11]
• 2012: unidisplay, Hangar Bicocca, Milan^[12]
• 2007: static fades, shown at PaceWildenstein, New York City and in Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich^[13]
• 2006: inver, shown at Frieze Art Fair, London and at Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig^[14]
• 2006: Polylit, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart^[15]
• 2005: Audio Visual Spaces, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent^[16]
• 2005: Anti Reflex, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt^[17]
• 2005: syn chron, shown at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin^[18]
• 2003: funken, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin^[19]
• 2002: International Art Biennial, Buenos Aires^[20]
• 2000: Ystads Konstmuseum (Sweden)
• 1999: 1% space, Copenhagen
• 1998: polyfoto, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig^[19]

Discography

Alva Noto solo studio albums

• Prototypes — 2000 (Mille Plateaux)
• Transform — 2001 (Mille Plateaux) & re-released on Raster-Noton in 2008
• Xerrox Vol.1 — 2007 (Raster-Noton)
• Unitxt — 2008 (Raster-Noton)
• Xerrox Vol.2 — 2009 (Raster-Noton)
• Univrs — 2011 (Raster-Noton)
• Xerrox Vol.3 — 2015 (Raster-Noton)
• Unieqav — 2018 (Noton)
• Xerrox Vol.4 — 2020 (Noton)
• HYbr:ID I — 2021 (Noton)

Alva Noto as Aleph-1 solo studio album

• Aleph-1 — 2007 (iDeal)

Alva Noto extended plays (EP)

• Transrapid — 2005 Raster-Noton
• Transvision — 2005 Raster-Noton
• Transspray — 2005 Raster-Noton
• Unieqav Remixes — featuring reworks by Fatima Al Qadiri, Ben Frost, JASSS, Florian Kupfer, Luis Da Silva — 2020 (Noton)

Alva Noto as noto solo studio albums

• spin — 1996 (Noton)
• infinity — 1997 (Noton)
• infinity (endless loop edition) — 1997 (Noton)
• kerne — 1998 (Noton)
• polyfoto — 1998 (Noton)
• time..dot — 1999 (Noton)
• empty garden, inside out '— 1999 (Noton)
• telefunken — 2000 (Noton)
• endless loop (e, f, g, h) — 2002 (Noton)
• autorec — 2002 (Noton)
• sonar endless edition — 2003 (Noton)

Compilation albums

• For— 2006 (Line)
• For 2— 2010 (Line)

Soundtrack albums

• The Revenant — 2015 Milan Records

Collaborations

With Ryuichi Sakamoto, as alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto

• Vrioon — December 2002 (Raster-Noton)
• Insen — March 2005 (Raster-Noton)
• Revep — March 2006 (Raster-Noton)
• Insen Live — October 2006 (Raster-Noton). DVD release
• utp_ — September 2008 (Raster-Noton)
• Summvs — May 2011 (Raster-Noton)
• Alva Noto, Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda - Live 2002 - 19 January 2018 (Noton)
• "Glass" — February 2018 (Noton)
• Two (Live At Sydney Opera House) — November 2019 (Noton)

With Ryoji Ikeda, as "Cyclo."

• Cyclo. — 2001 (Raster-Noton)
• Cyclo.id — 2011 (Raster-Noton)
• Cyclo. — 2017 (Noton)
• Cyclo.id — 2017 (Noton)

With Mika Vainio, as "noto"

• Ø + noto - mikro makro - 1997 (Noton)
• Ø + noto - wohltemperiert - 2001 (Noton)

With Scanner (Robin Rimbaud)

• Uniform: SF MoMA 2001. CD Contains 1 track, "Uniform," performed and recorded by Carsten Nicolai and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) for the exhibition of ""010101: Art in Technological Times"" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) on 3 March 2001.

With Blixa Bargeld, as ANBB

• Ret Marut Handshake — 2010 (Raster-Noton)
• Mimikry — 2010 (Raster-Noton)

With Opiate (Thomas Knak), as Opto

• Opto Files — 2001 (Raster-Noton). Limited CD release. Number 6 in the raster.static series. CD Comes in a silver anti-static bag with green card insert.
• Opto: 2nd — June 2004 (Hobby Industries). The CD contains ten tracks, all titled with times of the day. The collaboration was created in a 48-hour period and was inspired by the restored recording from a cassette found in a forest in Eastern Germany.

With Zeitkratzer

• Zeitkratzer & Carsten Nicolai: Electronics — 2008 (Zeitkratzer Records)

With Anne-James Chaton and Andy Moor

• Anne-James Chaton With Alva Noto And Andy Moor - Décade (CD, Album, Ltd, Boo), Raster-Noton, R-N 135, 2012

With Anne-James Chaton as Alphabet

• Alva Noto & Anne-James Chaton - ALPHABET (CD, Digital Album), Noton, 2019

With Olaf Bender (Byetone), as Diamond Version

• EP1 — 2012 (Mute)
• EP2 — 2012 (Mute)
• EP3 — 2013 (Mute)
• EP4 — 2013 (Mute)
• EP5 — 2013 (Mute)
• CI — 2 / 3 June 2014 (Mute)

With Iggy Pop and Tarwater

• Leaves of Grass — February 2016 (Morr Music). A seven-track EP on which Iggy Pop performs the poetry of Walt Whitman to music composed by Alva Noto and Tarwater.

Compilation appearances (exclusive/non-albums tracks)

• "Monophaser 4" from "V.a. – :2" (2008)
• "Garment" from "Sound Canvas | 1" (2008)
• "Planet Rock" from "Recovery" (2008)
• "Stalker" from "In Memoriam Andrey Tarkovsky" (2008)
• "Haloid Xerrox Copy 3 (Paris)" from "Mind The Gap Volume 70" (2007)
• "06.1 Quanta Random" from "Tribute to Iannis Xenakis" (2007)
• "Sonolumi (For Camera Lucida)" from "Camera Lucida" (2007)
• "Odradek (Music to Play in the Dark)" from "It Just Is In Memoriam Jhonn Balance" (2005)
• "Re10" from "Landscape 2" (2005)
• "Post-Remo" from "Richard Chartier + Various – Re'Post'Postfabricated" (2005)
• "Party Plasibenpuis (for Rune Lindblad)" from "The Hidden City: Sound Portraits from Goteborg" (2004)
• "Time...Dot (3)" from "An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music Third A-Chronology 1952-2004" (2004)
• "m6re" from "SoundxVision 2004" (2004)
• "Obi 2 Min." from "Frecuencies [Hz]" (2003)
• "60 sec" from "Soundcultures" (2003)
• "Strategies Against War 1.0—Covering All Information with White Noise" from "60 Sound Artists Protest the War" (2003) as Carsten Nicolai
• "MM", "Time Dot" from "Raster-Noton. Archiv 1" (2003) as Noto
• "Obi_2.3" from "Electrograph 02 – Athens Sound Media Festival 02" (2002)
• "Menschmaschine" from "Klangmaschine_Soundmachine" (2002)
• "Crystal R" from "Various – Live Sets At Ego 1998-2000" (2002) as Noto
• "M 06 Short" from "Electric Ladyland Clickhop Version 1.0" (2001)
• "Neue Stadt (Skizze 8)" from "Clicks & Cuts, Vol. 2" (2001)
• "Modul 4", "Impulse" from "Raster-Noton.(O)acis Box" (2001) as Noto
• "Neue Stadt Skizze 1" from "Between Two Points" (2001) as Noto
• "Sound Mobile" from "Ringtones" (2001)
• "Prototyp P" from "Raster-Noton. Oacis" (2000)
• "Prototype n." from "Clicks & Cuts" (2000)
• "Crystal s 10 60 sec." from "Computer Music Journal Sound Anthology, vol. 24" (2000) as Noto
• "Crystal.s2" from "Microscopic Sound" (1999) as Noto
• "∞ [Radio Teeth Edit]" from "Various – Because Tomorrow Comes #2" (1999) as Carsten Nicolai
• "Polyfoto 1a-1" from "Modulation & Transformation 4" (1999) as Noto
• "Zeit T3" from "Effe 1999" (1999)
• "POL .Motor", ".Test", ".Versuch", ".Anordnung", ".Variation", ".Modell" from "Just About Now" (1998) as Carsten Nicolai
• "Chemnitz" from "Decay" (1997) as Noto

Remixes

• Björk – Innocence (Alva Noto Unitxt Remodel 12" Remix)
• Björk – Dark Matter (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Byetone – Plastic Star (Alva Noto Remix)
• Greie Gut Fraktion – Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Hauschka – Radar (Alva Noto Remodel)
• John Cale – Catastrofuk (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Kangding Ray – Pruitt Igoe (Rise) (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Ludovico Einaudi – Divenire (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Machinefabriek – Stofstuk (Alva Noto Remix)
• Modwheelmood – Things Will Change (Remodeled by Alva Noto)
• Opiate – 100301 (Re-Model by Alva Noto)
• Pantha Du Prince – Frau Im Mond, Sterne Laufen (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Pomassl – Sol (Alva Noto Rmx)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto – Insensatez (Re-model by Alva Noto)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto – Undercooled (Alva Noto Remodel)
• Sōtaisei Riron + Keiichirō Shibuya – Our Music (Remodel Light)^[21]
• Spyweirdos – Wiesbaden (Already Happened Tomorrow) (Schwarzer Bock Mix)

Installations, etc.

• Audio installation in the Piazza del Plebiscito, Naples, Italy, December, 2009
• Opening performance for "010101: Art in Technological Times" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) on 3 March 2001
• Lovebytes Digital Festival, Sheffield, England, 2003
• Sónar Music Festival, 2004 and 2009
• Netmage, Bologna, Italy, 2006
• BBmix Festival, 31 October 2008
• Club Transmediale, Berlin, Germany, 2009, 2008 and 2000
• Pace Gallery, New York, 2010^[22]

Accolades

Source:^[23]

• 2003: Scholarship of Villa Aurora, Los Angeles
• 2007: Zurich Art Prize^[24]
• 2007: Scholarship of Villa Massimo, Rome
• 2012: Giga-Hertz Prize for Electronic Music of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (together with Ryoji Ikeda)
• 2015: Grand Prize of the Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo

See also

• List of ambient music artists
• List of intelligent dance music artists
• List of sound artists

References

1. Carsten Nicolai biography
2. "Alva Noto and Byetone collaborate as Diamond Version". The Wire. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
3. "Panorama 5: Aural Optic - MUTEK 2012, Montreal". MUTEK.
4. Carlos Hawthorn. "Alva Noto and Anne-James Chaton reveal collaborative album as ALPHABET". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
5. "Raster-Noton company to split in two". The Wire. The Wire. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
6. "Linguistic budgie inspires opera". BBC News. 25 March 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
7. "Digital Musics and Sound Art Golden Nica 2000". Ars Electronica Archive. Ars Electronica. 2000. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
8. . Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
9. "The Revenant - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
10. Adriano D'Aloia. "Virtually Present, Physically Invisible: Virtual reality immersion and emersion in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Carne y Arena". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
11. Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunstsammlung. "Kunstsammlung NRW: Startseite". Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2020.
12. "Carsten Nicolai - unidisplay". Pirelli HangarBicocca. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
13. "static fades" (PDF). www.carstennicolai.de.
14. "carsten nicolai". www.carstennicolai.de. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
15. "Kunstmuseum Stuttgart - Summer in the City". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2020.
16. "Audio Visula Spaces". S.M.A.K. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
17. "Carsten Nicolai". Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (in German). 20 January 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
18. "Carsten Nicolai: syn chron". www.smb.museum. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
19. "Galerie EIGEN+ART". www.eigen-art.com. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
20. "Carsten Nicolai - Artist's Profile - The Saatchi Gallery". www.saatchigallery.com. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
21. 相対性理論+渋谷慶一郎コラボ曲の高音質音源を先行配信. natalie.mu (in Japanese). 1 December 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
22. alva noto: unitxt 15 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine
23. "Carsten Nicolai". SAK Sächsische Akademie der Künste (in German). Retrieved 3 November 2020.
24. Zeitz, Lisa. "Ausstellungen im Haus Konstruktiv: Die Spuren der Schnecken". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 1 October 2022.

External links

• Alva Noto website
• Carsten Nicolai website
• NOTON website
• Raster-Noton website
• Alva Noto at AllMusic