Alva Noto

Under the name Alva Noto, Carsten Nicolai has developed since the 1990s a practice that sits between experimental electronic music and visual art. Born in 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in the former GDR, he first established himself on German scenes associated with glitch, microsound, ambient and a very stripped-down form of minimal techno, built on dry rhythmic impulses, delicate textures and a distinct use of sonic space. Alva Noto founded the Noton label in 1994 and from 1999 took part in the Raster-Noton project, an important platform for experimental electronic music in Europe. His discography as Alva Noto includes Prototypes (2000), Transform (2001), Xerrox Vol.1 (2007), Unitxt (2008), Univrs (2011), Unieqav (2018), Xerrox Vol.4 (2020), HYbr:ID I (2021), HYbr:ID II (2023) and HYbr:ID III (2024). He has also carried out several long-term collaborations, notably with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Vrioon (2002), Insen (2005), Summvs (2011) and on the music for the film The Revenant (2015), as well as collaborations with Ryoji Ikeda, Blixa Bargeld and Mika Vainio. His career moves between festivals, concert halls and contemporary art institutions.