Browse by Label: RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)

Artist:	NOTO
Title:	Telefunken
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 032CD

Part of the Raster Clear Series (first one in a while). "OK. Noto won the 'Golden Nica' (highest honors' at the Prix Ars Electronic festival) this year. This is a mixed-media Noto EP. Mixed media in that there's both audio and visual information on the CD. How you use this CD is you wire your CD player into your VCR, the left channel into the video input, the right into the audio input (although its irrelevant which you plug where as they're identical signals). Then you sit back and you watch, and you listen, and you learn. And it works. Sonically it's a series of rising tones and test jolts. Visually it's a bunch of wavering (damn helical scan) horizontal lines of growing thickness, occasional bursts of pure white, often complete darkness (echoes of Kubelka's 'Arnulf Rainer' abound). It's either a carefully plotted exercise or a complete happy accident. Highly enjoyable either way, especially in shuffle mode (some tracks are very short, others are longer)." -- Hrvatski.

Artist:	CYCLO.
Title:	Ryoji Ikeda + Carsten Nicolai
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 041CD

"On the occasion of a New Forms series of concerts in 1999 Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai did their first joint performance at Galerie Für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig/ Germany -- the project Cyclo. was founded. Between 1999 and 2001 files had been exchanged, material was collected and tracks were made. Cyclo. sets up a priority on digital quality of the tracks. Selective use of automated processes like the overlapping of loops and their falsification through wrong calculation or incorrect condensation algorithms, errors and the translation into rudimentary rhythmic constellations is the result of their work. The error itself becomes topic of this first release from Cyclo."

Artist:	NIBO
Title:	con. duct. spc. trm
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 049CD

"The young Japanese artist Nibo lives and works in Tokyo/Japan where he also has his own label 'n160'. Since 1997 he has been working on sound and visual projects where he puts special interest on scientific mathematical features. His release on Raster-Noton is a Macintosh programmed mixed mode CD connecting audio and visual components. Minimal digital sounds are transformed into images which are generated from the soundwaves. Geometric forms get their parameters directly from the audio signals. Raster-Noton's idea was to document this basic working concept because it shows the current aesthetic, multimedial and technic level of those approaches. Even though his release follows the tradition of Ikeda's and Nicolai's live performance work Nibo is part of the Japanese generation that seem to have found their own way to work with sound and image."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
Title:	Vrioon
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 050CD

"During his first live tour in Japan, Carsten Nicolai met Ryuichi Sakamoto in Tokyo. A year after it happened that he was asked to remix material from Sakamoto for the Japanese magazine Code Unfinished. '...The material that was given to me was already layered with digital effects. From one little clean piano piece I made the first track. Those simple piano chords I combined with a clear rhythm constellation. Somehow Ryuichi was very surprised and really liked my work. Weeks later he sent me another specially for this project recorded track.' This was the beginning of an almost 2 year process of music exchange and creation. Vrioon is very relaxing, it opens rooms, landscapes blur before listeners eyes. Static rhythmic pieces circle round and vary one and the same theme that, with its impressionistic sphere, reminds of soundtracks and ambient compositions. In this cooperation 2 different generations meet and share the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Transrapid
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	R-N 061CD

A cycle of three 21min-CDs with an exclusive cover design created by the artist. Nicolai explains the concept of his work: "'Speed of data-flow is equivalent to the speed of our time. In an era when virtual products of our ideas are expanding, we are simultaneously positioning a calm point in which to settle ourselves. The state of rapidity in which our bodies and the objects around us are existing, is being replaced by a new economics of anxiety for resources. Only the rudiments of rapidity remain in the form of a crude distribution. The burying and codifying of information makes information available to only a few. This closed circle repeatedly tries to establish new mechanisms to restrict access to these possibilities. In order to realize these concepts, strategies are created to not only to absorb information, but also to diffuse and atomise it.' This release is presented in three CDs: Transrapid, Transvision and finally, Transspray. The combined parts together, approach with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments. Text, image, vector graphic -- storage files, were translated into raw audio data as the source material from which constellations of diffused sound start to form. Special emphasis is put on the rhythmic aspect of the digitalised and rasterised data. The tools of their transformation reveal themselves by the structure of the recordings. By the restricting itself to simple and transparent mechanisms, this process becomes independent from existing standards and gains autonomy. Transrapid, Transvision and Transspray, follow on from the Transform release of 2001, thus closing a circle, relating to the transformation of sound into the immateriality of frequency. Alva Noto a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai, has been working on the material over a period of more than two years."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Transvision
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	R-N 062CD

2nd volume in this series, 21 minute CD EP. "This release is the second part of the Transall cycle. Transall approaches with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments. Alva Noto a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai states: '...speed of data-flow is equivalent to the speed of our time. In an era when virtual products of our ideas are expanding, we are simultaneously positioning a calm point in which to settle ourselves. Text, image, vector graphic -- storage files, were translated into raw audio data as the source material from which constellations of diffused sound start to form. Special emphasis is put on the rhythmic aspect of the digitalised and rasterised data. The tools of their transformation reveal themselves by the structure of the recordings. By restricting itself to simple and transparent mechanisms, this process becomes independent from existing standards and gains autonomy." this release is the second part of the transall cycle. transall approaches with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Transspray
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	R-N 063CD

3rd volume in this series, 21 minute CD EP."This release is the third part of the 'Transall' cycle. 'Transall' approaches with the problematics of speed, the vision of utopia and the dissolution of our ideas into fragments. Alva Noto a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai states: '... speed of data-flow is equivalent to the speed of our time. in an era when virtual products of our ideas are expanding, we are simultaneously positioning a calm point in which to settle ourselves.' Text, image, vector graphic -- storage files, were translated into raw audio data as the source material from which constellations of diffused sound start to form. Special emphasis is put on the rhythmic aspect of the digitalised and Rasterised data. The tools of their transformation reveal themselves by the structure of the recordings. By the restricting itself to simple and transparent mechanisms, this process becomes independent from existing standards and gains autonomy. ... Marco Peljhan (Slo) was approached to accompany the CD with a sleeve note, in regard to the content of the release. The text hopefully allows the audience a wider insight into the themes behind the recordings."

Artist:	BLIR
Title:	Raster Edits
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 064CD

"Most people know Mark Fell and Mat Steel under the name SND. Like no other project before Scape they stand for the propagandised clicks and cut sound. Quite recently Mark and Mat were successfully on tour with Autechre. Less well-known is the fact that both already released two 12" records in 1999 -- Blir. The no-design covers and the anonymous layout reveal that Blir as well as SND are rather names of projects than names of a band. Blir has always been meant to be an open platform. Mat and Mark had been working in the surrounding field of Sheffield University where they first met Autechre in the early nineties. Together with Jeremy Porter and Robert Baker (Premium Leisure) they set up a collective of artists in order to do recording sessions, start radio projects (Non Axiomatic) and exchange synthesizer patches with Raster-Noton's Frank Bretschneider. Blir was part of the notion of an anonymous collective -- of techno. In 2005 the project continues. Probably not as anonymous as they would like, Mat and Mark return to their roots when relocating old session material, cutting and re-editing it in a new way. By recording new tracks Blir pursues a more radical approach than SND does. There is no format of a song, the arrangement is minimalist. Music structures are cut into short loops, are analysed and kept -- efficiently and energetically."

Artist:	VON HAUSSWOLFF, CARL MICHAEL
Title:	Leech
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 067CD

"With his works the Swedish artist Carl Michael Von Hausswolff takes interest in revealing and using acoustic, visual, social and cultural phenomena. For the CD Leech he acts as a parasite on works by Olafur Eliasson, Carsten Höller, Tommi Grönlund/Petteri Nisunen and Richard James. In the three first pieces he sucked energy/sound out from the electric functions of those works; sounds that normally can not be heard. On James' work he bruises the skin surface as leeches usually do before they penetrate the body. This is a new way of sampling; a reading of the un-readable in certain types of art works. It might be a 'L'art pour l'art'-production but this was unavoidable as this 'search for the real' continued. Leech is the second release by Carl Michael Von Hausswolff on Raster-Noton."

Artist:	IKEDA, RYOJI
Title:	Dataplex
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 068CD

Repressed. "Dataplex is the much-anticipated new release from leading Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda. Since the mid 1990s, Ikeda has pioneered a radical and highly influential minimalist approach in the worlds of electronic and contemporary music. His seventh solo album and the first musical composition in the datamatics series -- a new body of work across various media that uses data as both its material and its theme -- Dataplex presents a significant and stunning progression in Ikeda's career. Aside from demonstrating Ikeda's unrivaled standards of technical precision, minute sound construction and engineering, the album also introduces an extraordinary and fascinating overall structure. The first eight tracks of Dataplex consist mostly of high-frequency raw data. Their structures are located clearly outside the cosmos of music. Instead, these linear tracks seem to be source code transformed into an audible medium; a constant stream of data, they represent the basic material of the album. The following pieces become longer, increasingly complex and distinctly inter-related, before the rhythmic structure itself metamorphoses. Rhythms and tones are refracted progressively, until, with track 18, data.vortex, Ikeda opens up an apparently infinite acoustic space with an expansive piece that contrasts dramatically with all that precedes it. And following this caesura the album almost ends in the way it started, sinking back into the data flow. Through meticulous attention to detail and the most minimal of gestures, Ikeda succeeds in expanding and enhancing his sound design to reveal a new universe to the listener. Dataplex opens up avenues of pure musical abstraction whilst simultaneously embracing complex, unique and elegant individual composition. In its entirety, Dataplex remains inscrutable; a mystery whose secrets require individual investigation and discovery. Its defiance of appropriate definition, description or comparison, ultimately underpins the pioneering nature of this long-awaited release. Datamatics. Dataplex is the first musical composition in the datamatics series, a new body of works by Ryoji Ikeda that explores the aesthetic potentials of data by using data itself -- from its transparency to its materiality, from its ultra-speed to hyper-diffusion. The project derives the hidden constants of data-ness from the vast data ocean that ranges from DNA and the everyday world to the universe and pure mathematics."

Artist:	SIGNAL
Title:	Robotron
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 069CD

"Raster-Noton's flagship Signal -- Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider and Carsten Nicolai -- is something like the reference group of one of the pivotal labels of new minimal electronic music. But although only having released one CD so far, their sessions and concerts have been very influential until today. Some of those tracks of the past years now result in a compilation that joins the work of the three masterminds of Raster-Noton, but not like a simple aggregation of egos, much rather like a conversation in which every discourse modulates the other and in the end it is not possible anymore to distinguish between each individual contribution. In this sense, Signal would be a superego that serves a process in which the rule, coincidence and interaction play equal parts. This blends into an open and democratic music that has some of Kraftwerk's melancholy in it. Thus Signal are their spiritual heirs. Robotron was recorded at Voxxx Studio/Chemnitz, Unit/Tokyo, Palast der Republik/Berlin between 2001 and 2006."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Notations Archiv 1
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD BOX SET/ART
Price:	$102.00
Catalog #:	R-N 070CD

"Notations Archiv 1 is a project by students of klasse systemdesign at Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig during winter semester 2005/06. The project focused on visualization of sound. It was supervised by Carsten Nicolai and Cyan (prof. Daniela Haufe and prof. Detlef Fiedler). The 13 notations are related to selected tracks from Archiv 1 album released by Raster-Noton. Limited edition of 500 prints. The CD is Archiv 1. In cardboard box, 43,4 cm x 31,2 cm x 2,7 cm, 2,1 kg. Artists: Katrin Menne, Manja Schönerstedt, Simone Müller, Joachim Bartsch, Pascal Storz, Lydia Sperber, Fabian Fenk, Roozbeh Asmani, Jakob Kirch, Toni Schönbucher, David Voss, Florian Göthner, Tobias Steinert. Please note: the CD here is the same disc as the free CD which came with The Wire, issue 238, December 2003; it features a best-of selection of Raster tracks from 1997-2004.

Artist:	COH
Title:	Patherns EP
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 071CD

"The Raster-Post series winds up with a pop release by label regular and favorite Coh aka Ivan Pavlov. Entitled Patherns, this 4 track CD-EP creates a picture-puzzle-like effect, while at the same time, there are four exercises in constructive melancholy. Coh seems to throw back to the times of pushing rhythms and propulsive club music of the '80s and '90s (as we all know his love for the 'Moroder' sound), but the past appears digitalized here...nothing would make you think that this is not a product of the 21st century! The Patherns EP presents Coh's sonic speculation in humorous and almost lyrical terms. The texture varies from piece to piece, but the basic structure stays the same and creates a diabolic drive which is a force in itself. While frisky and playful in some parts, this release never loses its depth. In this respect the listener should follow the instructions on the inside: PLAY LOUD IF YOU CAN!" 23 minute EP, in die-cut digipak.

Artist:	ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
Title:	Revep
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	R-N 072CD

"Only the real end is the end -- and after the success of Insen this project has not reached the end yet. The EP Revep is a continuation of the collaboration of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and offers a previously unreleased extract of this musical exchange which started with Vrioon and found its temporary end with the Insen album. Similar to its predecessors, Revep breaks the rules of traditional acoustics -- the separation of sound and noise -- in a mysterious manner. 'You hardly can go further, hardly can get deeper into the structure of sounds -- in order to discover a beauty never heard before.' -- Tim Lorenz, Groove. In contrast to both predecessors, Revep presents with 'ax Mr.L.,' a track where the artists fall back on an already renowned composition by Sakamoto -- the theme music of the movie 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' with David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takeshi Kitano from 1983." 20 minute EP, in fold out digipak.

Artist:	KANGDING RAY
Title:	Stabil
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 073CD

"Raster-Noton has established a core group of artists, many of which were undiscovered talents. In this tradition the new release is no exception. Kangding Ray aka David Letellier arrives at Raster-Noton artist collective with his first album, Stabil. Born in France and based in Berlin, Letellier evolved as a guitarist and drummer in various bands whose influences ranged from rock and pop to jazz before moving into electronic music. Stabil is a reflection of Letellier's background as it integrates guitar loops, bass lines, residual noise, acoustic instruments and digital anomalies to create a textured soundscape. As the label is looking into new directions, Kangding Ray's debut makes its mark as an interesting attempt to find a balance between the flow of melodies and the ever- changing structure of rhythm."

Artist:	PIXEL
Title:	Set Your Center Between Your Parts In Order To
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 074CD

"Set Your Center Between Your Parts In Order To is the highly anticipated follow up release to the stellar debut Display by Danish artist Pixel aka Jon Egeskov. As a professionally trained jazz musician with academic credentials, Egeskov furthers his journey into the realm of minimalistic electronic music. With parts he continues merging digital (sound) artifacts with subsonic basslines in a rather allusive manner. Inspired by African conflict and cross rhythms, Pixel examines the potential of simultaneous yet independent pulsating metres. He fuses polyrhythmic and polymetrics with the signature raster-noton sound vocabulary and thus connects his work to the here and now. The tracks are heavily accentuated in regards to dynamics. They were recorded during several studio sessions without any overdubs (and without editing later). Pixel may have drawn inspiration to proceed this way after witnessing live performances by Pansonic and Autechre. The songs were created intuitively and spontaneously during the process and performing and improvising. You can indeed hear that everything is floating and that there are no statics or incidental situations. The album Set Your Center Between Your Parts In Order To gets it's sparks from the ups and downs of it's density...from the complex blending of basic particles to the shift in their significance. If you allow yourself to get into this dark and evolving fabric a auditory sensation of rhythmicized timer will emerge. Mastered by Stefan Betke of Pole / Scape."

Artist:	CHARTIER, RICHARD
Title:	Incidence
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 075CD

"After several releases by artists of the collective around Raster-Noton on American label Line, a long-outstanding invitation was issued into the opposite direction. So last but not least the present release is an expression of long-lasting artistic ties between both labels. In the greyness heavy waves begin to glide into the one-hour work. They swell and flood a vacuum. Chartier is able to intensify this maelstrom in long and graceful moves. In a majestic and subtle manner he creates a subsonic vastness, capturing the listener, disconnecting him from the irrelevant reality. The end mirrors the beginning -- revealing the idea of an endless space in an endless composition. Finally incidence is a sound stream seeking to transform time into a certain timelessness. Richard Chartier runs the label Line, following the traditions of Trente Oiseaux by focusing on minimalist and not beat-oriented sound experiments. His compositions often test the limits of auditory perceptibility. In this way Chartier concentrates on tiniest changes within seemingly static sound masses."

Artist:	SENKING
Title:	List
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 077CD

"Is there beauty in the threatening? With List Senking introduces 40 minutes of the darkest matter and reckons: yes. On List he varies and experiments with a -- for Raster-Noton -- frightening diversity of sounds. He reveals the pieces as sound-collages, as quotes, which seem to refer to splatter movie and film noir. Following the tremendous plot of his endtime-subject, he persistently welds together sound spaces in order to compress them later into overwhelming drone-sounds. These as such, then go to serve a fundamental purpose, as an environment for minimalistic themes and melodies, always to be driven by the ever present slow-beat of the pieces. Nonetheless, the syntax, the destiny of each single piece is highly varied and has the appearance of a much more mature composition, compared to his earlier works. Remarkably the technical aspect does not take a leading role in Senking's anti-utopia visions. It's about substantial and age-old patterns, about impulses and the inevitable. Comparable to a tracking shot, the sound masses are flowing grey and drama-laden towards their final purpose -- seeming to follow the ductus of the opening piece -- let's go."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Xerrox Vol. 1
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 078CD

"Originals are unique, be it genetic codes or image and sound documents. Their copies are mere means of distribution. To secure these originals from misuse is the main issue today. The essence and potential of the copy mostly is disregarded. We live in a world of constant reproduction where only the replication counts as original, the single object is a sheer copy of the prefiguration, which is abstract and becomes an icon. The uncountable number of multiplied images confirm the original, but immediately the copy withdraws and assesses its own value. By the technique of copying the copy also often contains mistakes and abstractions, that differ from the original. These simplifications and deformations inherent to the copy process lead to a gradual loss of its connection to the original and results in a substantial change of meaning. Although there is still a rest of the actual source, the original message disperses in the white noise of reproduction. At the end the observer cannot hardly differentiate if the origin is part of the information transferred. If there is still a integral material component of the original or this can only be projected -- this question remains unanswered. What finally remains is the process of copying itself. It becomes a creative tool by analytically accomplishing something new. The mutating copy provides space for development -- the copy becomes original again. Xerrox is the new, self-contained project of Alva Noto, which like his 'Transall' series (Transrapid, Transvision and Transspray) is intended to be released in five parts during the next years. On Xerrox, Alva Noto works with samples from muzak, advertising, soundtracks and entertainment programs. These sounds we hear randomly in everyday life and thereby they become an always present and available public domain. With Xerrox Alva Noto manipulates these recognizable melodic (micro) structures by the process of copying. He alienates them beyond recognition so the results manifest their connection to the original only suggestively. In this respect: the original is copied to the original. Alva Noto used several samples from these sources: Narita airport Tokyo, in-flight program Air France, telephone wait-loop Lufthansa, hotel Apollo Paris, Suizanso hotel Yamaguchi, Seven-Eleven Tokyo, Forma London, Reaktor, www.kkmovie.com."

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Transform
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 079CD

Transform by Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai), originally released on Mille Plateaux in 2001, is now being re-released on Raster-Noton. The album, released as a CD, comes with a new cover and is digitally remastered. On Transform, Alva Noto meant to reduce the aesthetic of pop to the bone. Rather than in pop music, where the basic focus lies on harmonic and melodic forms, on Transform, they give way to pure rhythm structures derived from only sine tones and white noise, which nevertheless communicate on an emotional level. Transform is the first part of Alva Noto's Transall series (along with the EPs Transrapid, Transspray, Transvision: 2001-2005), and after his first release on Mille Plateaux, Prototypes (2000), marked his next step into a more rhythmically-oriented phase of his work.

Artist:	BRETSCHNEIDER, FRANK
Title:	Rhythm
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 082CD

"Rhythm is neither pop nor avant-garde, but deals simply with the basic principles of any modern music: rhythm. Frank Bretschneider takes his never simple, but all the more heartfelt relationship to rhythm and its complexity to an intense inventory and this time works less out of suspenseful abstract sounds than out of grooves. The terseness and precision of previous works remains, as well as a preference for high-voltage sounds halfway between noise and tone. New is the assemblage of the material. A combination of programming, composition and construction, which draws a clear distinction to his preferred loop-based work on foregone albums, is connected with Bretschneider's very idiosyncratic aesthetic of digital sound: controlled and objective. The whole follows simple mechanical states: on/off, forward/backward, up/down, slow/fast, loud/quiet, dull/brilliant, soft/hard and is characterized by the absence of any romanticism. Still this return to the elementary, the fundamental, does not diminish the music to dancefloor functionality, instead Bretschneider always stays emphatically musical and manages to generate sophisticated and complex rhythm-structures, which respectively induce minimal deviations in frequency and timing relationships to generate a surplus of funk. In all, Rhythm is probably Bretschneider's most direct, clear and concentrated work yet. Frank Bretschneider works as a musician and composer in Berlin. Since 1996, he has published a number of albums for Raster-Noton, Mille Plateaux and 12K. The music for Rhythm was created between June 2006 and March 2007."

Artist:	POMASSL
Title:	Spare Parts
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 088CD

Spare Parts is the long-awaited new album from the sonic laboratory of Austrian-based "psycho-physio" musician Pomassl and the latest example of his interest in deconstructing musical structure and testing the limits of hearing. Spare Parts still retains his distinctive style, but with much more maturely-arranged elements and carefully structured sections, compared to his earlier output. Dabbling and blurring experimental and advanced pop. It is Pomassl's full-length debut for the German Raster-Noton imprint, after several collaborative contributions for the label. Producing this album, Pomassl has explored his arsenal of armaments with the initial use of original generators and synthesizers (Polivoks, Ritm-2) from Soviet Fabrics, manufactured in the '80s, beside his usual combination of prototypical, self-customized electronic instruments versus state-of-the-art technology. Abstract pieces such as "Atenna Atoll" and "Allied Nippon" are placed next to experimental tunes such as "L-R He Cntriller," and piercing electro-beats such as "Parasite Battery." Conceptual parts and short particles are contained in pieces such as the very short intro track "Nitro," and "Blank Jack" and "Valsalva Maneuver" (a maneuver used to clear the ears when ambient pressure changes, as in diving or aviation) function as intro and interludes. The most anomalous track "Qaraghandy Storm" closes the album with a far-off electrical desert storm. Pomassl is renowned for re-training listeners on how to listen, and how to exercise and utilize the most hidden and delicate structures of the innermost inner ear.

Artist:	IKEDA, RYOJI
Title:	1000 Fragments
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 089CD

1000 Fragments is Ryoji Ikeda's first solo album, originally released in 1995 on Ikeda's own CCI label. As early as 1995, leading Japanese computer-manipulated sound composer Ikeda started his exploratory work with digital sound design, having an inspirational impact on the founders of the Raster-Noton label. 1000 Fragments encapsulates the early parts of Ikeda's career, from the mid-'80s through the early/mid-'90s, in three different subsections: Channel X (1985-95), 5 Zones (1994-95) and Luxus (1993). An early review from www.full-albums.net characterizes 1000 Fragments as such: "The first piece, consisting of several short parts (bursts?), snaps the listener around a jumble of sound fragments from TV, NASA, radio, film, raw electronics and computer-generated tones, and so on. It's rather disorienting stuff... more like something you'd expect out of The Hafler Trio, and actually sort of out of character with the rest of the disc. As for the rest of the disc, it's taken up with two long works, which I assume involve computer-generated sound but which have the lushness one more associates with analog electronics. Both are longish ambient works, but instead of featuring static repetitive structures, these unfold in an intriguing manner, like a long, slow drive across a very sparse landscape. As opposed to the initial work here, these are definitely the 'meat' of this disc, and anyone looking for some fine ambient work with perhaps a bit of an edge would do well to check this out."

Artist:	COH (IVAN PAVLOV + COSEY FANNI TUTTI)
Title:	COH Plays Cosey
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 091CD

COH Plays Cosey is the first part of an ongoing collaborative project between Stockholm's Ivan Pavlov/COH and the UK's Cosey Fanni Tutti, known for her solo performances and work with Chris Carter/CTI as well as for being a part of the radical cultural phenomena COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. Very much a statement rather than just a musical venture, COH Plays Cosey deals with concepts of honesty, trust, privacy and communication as well as (perceptions of) sexuality. The work represents a very close contact between the two, where one (Ivan) was to interpret voice recordings made for him by the other (Cosey) -- recordings made in intensely emotional states to establish a dialogue that extends beyond words, beyond intellect. A most private emotional diary of one (Cosey) pronounced to the general public by the other (Ivan). The work has been kept hermetic by Ivan voluntarily restricting his choice of sound exclusively to that originating from the voice recordings, thus preserving the raw quality of his source material. In this explicit sonic adventure, COH plays Cosey without inhibitions, without fear and without questioning the content submitted. COH plays Cosey like an actor -- becoming her through his elaborate transformations of the voice. COH plays Cosey like a computer game -- making his way though the infinite combinations and variety of human expression with ease and a sense of fun. COH plays Cosey like sex -- fully controlling the process and manifesting the eventual outcome. COH Plays Cosey is the embarrassingly unspoken made audible, COH Plays Cosey is the place where there is nothing left to hide.

Artist:	BYETONE
Title:	Death of a Typographer
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 092CD

Olaf Bender (Byetone) is co-founder of the Raster-Noton label, and this is his third release for the label. Death of a Typographer is meant to be a snapshot, recorded in a wintery week in Berlin. Only the pre-released single Plastic Star was created in sunny Athens, which is included in its original session version here. The music on Death of a Typographer carries the special sound of Raster-Noton, but with an important difference: the tracks act as focal points, as elegies to a latently-flowing stream, a stream that still moves on, even when the music has long faded away. The tracks do not necessarily move forward, they rather open up a dark abyss which seems deepest in "Capture This" parts I and II. Byetone manages to achieve a remarkable metamorphosis of the organic, with tracks that don't reveal any of the elements of conventional composition techniques, but which somehow seem to emerge from a static sound body. Weirdly danceable yet remote, and a big step for Raster. Death of a Typographer poses riddles. In fact, for the vigilant spectator, the ambiguous artwork will reveal the Death of a Typographer.

Artist:	IKEDA, RYOJI
Title:	Test Pattern
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 093CD

Following 2005's Dataplex CD on Raster-Noton, Test Pattern is the second audio release in Ryoji Ikeda's multimedia project, Datamatics, an ongoing exploration of the potential to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world. Test Pattern acts as a system that converts any type of data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. Through the conversion of raw data into digital audio files, Ikeda enables us to listen to the flow of data, creating an extraordinary and unexpected soundtrack. These sequences of data reveal a rich variety of microscopic structures which form Ikeda's raw material; working with these micro-structures, they sometimes form the basis of chronological sequences, and sometimes he focuses on their rhythmic qualities. All sounds are the result of Ikeda's manipulation of this raw data. Test Pattern aims to examine the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception, pushing both to their absolute limits. Almost all tracks on this release are unsuitable for conversion into high-quality mp3 files. The velocity of the audio files is ultra-fast, some hundreds of frames per second, so that the album provides a performance test for the audio equipment, as well as a response test for the audience's perceptions. A sticker on the CD jacket warns of high volume listening as this may cause damage to equipment and eardrums.

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Unitxt
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	R-N 095CD

After finishing the Transall Cycle in 2006 and introducing the Xerrox series in 2007, Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) makes a move back to his more rhythmic approach with Unitxt. Seen as a kind of continuation of the Transspray EP from 2004, Unitxt was recorded during Raster-Noton Japan tours in 2006 and 2007. 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 bpm and out of different rhythmic units or modules recombined, as well as the mode of expression used for the text component of the recordings (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 "U_07" and "U_08-1." Track "U_07" is based on a portrait of Carsten Nicolai, where the text was generated from a simple instruction: just to read all notes, credit cards, invoices, business cards, etc., out of Nicolai's wallet. For "U_8-1," Anne-James Chaton used numbers from the golden cut (or golden ratio), quoting a simple but endless row of numbers from the mathematical concept. After the first 10 tracks that are the core recordings of Unitxt, there are 15 more tracks generated from converting pure data from 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 10 tracks or to be regarded as sonic concept recordings.

Artist:	ALVA NOTO
Title:	Unitxt
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	R-N 095LP

LP version, deluxe gatefold package. Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) makes a move back to his more rhythmic approach with Unitxt. 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 bpm and out of different rhythmic units or modules recombined, as well as the mode of expression used for the text component of the recordings (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 "U_07" and "U_08-1." Track "U_07" is based on a portrait of Carsten Nicolai, where the text was generated from a simple instruction: just to read all notes, credit cards, invoices, business cards, etc., out of Nicolai's wallet. For "U_8-1," Anne-James Chaton used numbers from the golden cut (or golden ratio), quoting a simple but endless row of numbers from the mathematical concept. After the first 10 tracks that are the core recordings of Unitxt, there are 15 more tracks generated from converting pure data from 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 10 tracks or to be regarded as sonic concept recordings.

Artist:	VOIGT, WOLFGANG
Title:	Gas
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	Book w/CD
Price:	$45.00
Catalog #:	R-N 102CD

Softcover book/photographic art catalogue with exclusive audio compact disc included, 128 pages in full-color, shrink-wrapped together. For the first time ever, Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas presents the visual aspect of the comprehensive Gas project in print. It is not meant to be a monolithic retrospective of his visual work, but it features a broad spectrum of photographic images taken between 1995 and 1998, showing many different moods and perspectives of Wolfgang Voigt's cosmos. What they all have in common is the mystical focus and seemingly, the blurring of boundaries between lightness and darkness, happiness and depression, kitsch and art, pixels and leaves. With the enclosed CD, Voigt has opened his treasure chest and presents some well-selected, rare jewels from the very early days (and nights). Four of the five tracks have never been released or played before. In the middle of the 1990s, Wolfgang Voigt, better known under a great many pseudonyms such as Mike Ink, Studio1 or Grungerman, and the driving force behind the rise of Cologne minimal techno, had reached a temporary peak in his career. Going back to the 1980s, Voigt began working under a self-realized concept he named "Blei." Taking in the most varied sound models, he began to extract elements from classical, polka, or brass music, and along with electronic pop music and German schlager sounds, formed a distinguished and unique pop music style that would fit in with the subculture at that time. In the early 1990s, influenced by techno, Voigt began to experiment with a timbal marching through strongly alienated, free-floating string loops. These elegiac tracks, their lack of beginning or end, their intoxicating, smooth, and partly amorphous structure sounded to him like evaporating gas and thus, Gas music was born. In his music, Wolfgang Voigt does not create a direct reference to the original sounds he alters; rather, he tries to reduce the material to its basic aesthetic structure by using different zoom, loop and alienation techniques in order to release it from its original meaning and context. His intention is to create a kind of aesthetic essence, a cave (detail/loop/repetition) where you can get thrillingly lost.

Previous Page Index of Labels Next Page

Artist:	VAINIO, MIKA
Title:	20' To 2000
Label:	RASTER-NOTON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	R-N 025CD