ALVA NOTO 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Carsten Nicolai's distinctive approach to reduced, crystalline electronics continues to bear fruit with the second part in the Hybrid:ID series, which commenced in 2021. As with the prior volume, the music contained within is drawn from a commissioned score to a dance piece by Richard Siegal. As his own Noton label outlines, these ten pieces 'delve into infinity, drawing inspiration from resonance and elasticity.' Needlepoint pulses, electrostatic flickering and elegant dub techno forms abound, each sound given appropriate space in the unmistakable style Nicolai has made his own over a celebrated career on the fringes of contemporary electronic music.

Review: German artists and Noton co-founder Alva Noto composed the soundtrack to 'This Stolen Country Of Mine' back in 2022. It has arrived both on vinyl and now on CD and is an accompaniment to the documentary film which explores the question of a state's sovereignty in the face of foreign powers, portraying Ecuadorian resistance fighters and journalists who oppose the sell-off of an extensive part of the country's resources to Chinese investors. Those themes sure are heavy and Noto is up to the job of matching them with his minimal, but tense score. It is quietly powerful and determined much like the communal spirit of the Ecuadorian mountain villagers.

Review: Carsten Nicolai returns to his NOTON label with a new album of Alva Noto work, exercising his trademark minimalist glitch through the prism of a soundtrack to a theatre piece developed in 2021 for Swiss writer Simon Stone's Komplizen. As well as his usual fusion of stark, clinical soundscapes and pointillist digital impulses, Nicolai folds in delicate piano and compositional elements which invoke more tangible emotions than you might often associate with his solo work, perhaps taking some cues from his collaborations with the late, great Ryuicihi Sakamoto. Presented as a double LP release, this is a freshly romantic slant on the Alva Noto story encased within his unmistakable soundworld.