ALVA NOTO - Unitxt

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: Raster-Noton R-N 095

Release Year: 2008

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €14.00

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"Carsten Nicolai aka ALVA NOTO, der sich inzwischen auch mit der Feder eines Björk-Timbaland-Remixes schmücken kann, verfährt hier
einmal mehr nach dem Motto: Nothing beats Beatz. Strenge und doch animierend mobile Raster von Ton und Nichtton bestimmen Unitxt
(R-N 95). Die ständig pixelnden Plops in eifrigem 120 bpm-Tempo wirken gleichzeitig aleatorisch komplex, unendlich variabel, beruhigend selbstähnlich und unfehlbar automatisch. Kaum etwas könnte den Zeitgeist aus der Maschine, der Aufregung und Beruhigung zur Deckung bringt, besser transportieren als dieser Minimal Techno. Die Hälfte der Synapsen wird auf Touren gebracht, durch beständigen Beschuss aktiviert und angeregt, die andere Hälfte durch eine Art Monotonie zweiter Ordnung hypnotisch eingelullt. Sinnesreiz und Desensibilisierung werden ununterscheidbar, ich möchte zugleich mitzucken in diesem Stakkatobeschuss, diesem eckigen Swingprogramm, diesem steppenden Automatenballett, und wohlig wegdösen unter dieser übersinnlichen Massage, die sich jeden Quadratmillimeter der Hirnrinde einzeln vornimmt. Zwei Tracks ragen heraus durch den txt-Faktor, den Anne-James Chaton, Soundpoet aus Montpellier, beisteuert. Er liest automatenhaft banale Infos über Nicolai und eine Zahlenreihe. Dazu gibt es dann noch 15 weitere Kurz- und Kürzesttracks, prasselndes Zischen, weißes Rauschen, krätzig-stachlige Attacken, allesamt hörbar gemachte Nichtaudiodateien." [Bad Alchemy]

"We love Alva Noto. His minimal rhythmic soundscapes are just so fantastic, dense and complex but at the same time impossibly simple
and spare. And everything he does is so high concept. But in a way, that's not obvious just listening to the music. This may be art, high
concept art, but the resulting sounds transcend art, and become music, and grooves, pleasing to the ear, not only the mind.
Unitxt is Alva Noto's (aka Carsten Nicolai) return to 'the rhythm' after a handful of releases (in several different series) that were much more esoteric and ambient. Unitxt is still pretty ridiculously high concept, with the songs developed through various methods: one song is a portrait of Nicolai converted into sound, another is based on the golden ratio, a recitation of an endless row of numbers, another is based on a reading of the various items in Nicolai's wallet, credit cards, business cards, notes, just reading the words and numbers and converting the resulting information into sound. Endlessly amusing for sure, but it wouldn't mean shit if the music was bad. Thankfully, this is exactly the stuff we love from Nicolai, super clinical machine like soundscapes of skitter and glitch. everything sharp and clipped, the grooves far from funky, at least in the normal sense, but VERY funky in some sort of fucked up futuristic minimal robot dancefloor way. A few of the tracks feature vocals, but they're in German, and spoken quickly and rhythmically, making them less like lyrics and more like another overlaid rhythm (especially when the voice is just reciting numbers).
Imagine a huge white glass cube filled with robots, all hunkered over computers and drum machines, and synthesizers and equalizers, everything totally automated, huge gears turning, machines pulsing, the robots locked into the same motion over and over, a strange assembly line. At the end, a tiny speaker, facing a huge empty grassy field, a blue sky, nothing in the sky but a single white cloud. Perfectly ovoid. Out of the speaker comes this. That's what we imagine when we listen to Unitxt. Stripped down, cool and clinical outer space future robot anti-funk, laced with plenty of sculpted buzz and crackle, and shaped from bits of hiss and crunch. Tacked on to the end of the record, are a whole series of fragments and sound sources, each created from transforming an image or information into sound. These are 'Source Code Solos' to be played over the other tracks, or might assume, that with these sounds, and your own giant robot manned glass cube sound factory, you could make your very own Unitxt! " [Aquarius Records review]

"After finishing the transall cycle and introducing the series of xerrox, Alva Noto makes a move back to his more rhythmic approach in unitxt. It could be seen as a kind of continuation to the transspray ep from 2004. A preview of unitxt concept was already released as a remix track for the björk cd-s release innocence produced by Björk-Timbaland, from her latest album volta (2007). unitxt was recorded during raster-noton japan tours 2006 and 2007. it was reviewed and edited in berlin early 2008. The title unitxt could be read as - unit extended referring to a unit of a rhythmic grid - or universal text referring to a universal language, e.g. mathematics: units, constants, measurements, prefix-, SI system of units and is represented in spoken word and by codes in sound itself. unit - the initial working title of the album - is the name of club unit in tokyo. The way of composing the tracks in the grid of 120 pbm and out of different rhythmic units or modules recombined, as well as to express the text component of the recordings that developed in collaboration with the french sound poet Anne-James Chaton, changed the original title to unitxt. Anne-James Chaton delivers the text - voice for the tracks 07 and 08-1. Track 07 is based on the text work the artist who does sound, a portrait of carsten nicolai, where the text was generated from a simple instruction: just to copyread all notes, credit cards, invoices, business cards, etc. out of nicolai's wallet. For track 8-1 anne-james chaton used numbers of the golden cut, quoting a simple but endless row of numbers from this mathematical concept. After the first ten tracks that can be regarded as the core recordings of unitxt, there are 15 more tracks generated from converting pure data of programs, jpgs or other digital files into sound material. These tracks could be considered as source code solos to be played on top of the first ten tracks or to be regarded as sonified concept recordings. unitxt will be performed on tours in north America (may 2008), in south America (october 2008), and Japan (november 2008) as well as on selected festivals and venues throughout europe in 2008." [label info]

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