Alva Noto ‎– Univrs

Hearing this again today (and given the recent unfortunate demise of Mika Vainio) was just how much this sounds like a 'separated at birth / lost' Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio, Ø album. Slightly softer in the 'frequency extremist' parts and not quite plumbing the depths of the inky blackness of your 'oh so capable' hi-fi as Pan at their best, but with possibly more of an edge on the syncopation and structure holding the album together as an aural entity.

You can’t talk about Raster-Noton and not mention Carsten Nicolai. The Chemnitz (Germany) based label boss (along with Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider), has a few ongoing series running for the last couple of years. In 2007, Nicolai kicked off the Xerrox series in which he examines the concept behind digital reproduction of sound. There’s also the Transall series, experimenting with rhythmically oriented sine tones and white noise. The work on Univrs develops the concepts originally explored on Unitxt (2008) – processing of single unit patterns and information stored in text. On this second installment in the series Nicolai expands his focus to broad source of data, universal language, if you will. French voice-artist Anne-James Chaton appears at the center of the album, on “Uni Acronym” reciting 208 three-letter acronyms in alphabetical order to tightly structured Notoesque signature rhythm0 The video for this amazing track can be seen here. It would be amazing to catch an audio-visual performance of Univrs, as it features real-time manipulation of software-generated test images by the audio signals, which are then fed through a custom hardware box that triggers the video signals according to the value of the audio signal. Never repetitive, but not necessarily random. As always, Nicolai manages to neatly fold zeros and ones into art, stripping away the binary, cold, and sterile fragments, until the digital signals transform into analog waveforms, that we, humans, seem to call ‘music’. This is a must for any serious collector of Raster-Noton’s catalog.

Amazing record. Some of the tightest, harshest and most strained sounds I have heard in a while. Sometimes clean, sometimes fuzzy, it is the sound of machines lashing out. A highlight (for me) from 2011. If you like the Gescom Megamix or Meam releases on Skam this should be up your street. Played loud, it is absolutely brutal.

One of the best releases this year and one hell of a way to torture your neighbors and record player.

This is one of the best albums I've heard this year. Challenging, subliminal then aggressive, quiet then forward. Its really gets better with every listen. Totally absorbing.

another masterpiece in this genre,IDM~voices~low bass~high tunes~rawness,play this LOUD,never mind the angry neighbours just do it.pure nourishment for a damaged brain!