Aleph-1 - ST

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 31 Jan, 2008.

A rare thing occurred at these towers today. All heads were mutually hypnotized by the sublime rhythms of The self-titled Aleph-1 album. Alva Noto fans have no doubt been awaiting the return of Carsten Nicolai, this time under a different guise. iDEAL are the label that bring us this joyous album. Responsible for releases by Mokira, Prurient, Wolf Eyes. The Skull Defects, Dead Machines and Kevin Drumm, this is a label that clearly know their onions. Incidentally The price of the humble onion is about to increase here in the UK due to a poor crop last year. Phil's response to me telling him this was one of total devastation as we both maintain, as I'm sure you will agree, that the onion is the foundation of any nutritious meal... So this album explores similar minimalism, repetition, rhythms and subtle detail to the Alva Noto material. It's construction is linear but less abrasive. The aesthetic is the same and the minute pin prick sounds and distant glitches are all here for those that will allow themselves to become absorbed. On the surface it can appear cold and clinical, however when you tune in, it really is very warm and pretty sounding. Even comforting, like a music box stuck on a loop rotating through your brain. Nicoli manages to inject real human feeling into this one. Although some of the rhythms seem initially awkward, the repetition allows you to get your head round them and eventually your body starts beginning to sway. It's clear to see why this man is so highly revered. He's at the top of his game. This is available on CD and gatefold double LP with minimal artwork that recalls Alva Noto's Xerrox (an album I was a bit disappointed by but is overdue another listen) sleeve. It's so crisp and clean looking your 'e almost afraid to touch it for fear of soiling its minimal perfection. On my here vinyl copy there is a slight surface crackle that makes it sound like Burial doing minimal electronics. I don't mind it though. Actually it adds an element of analogue warmth to proceedings. Bleep bliss that is highly recommended.

Aleph-1 is a new project by Carsten Nicolai, and it’s a project challenging time itself. Music to be listened to in it’s entirety, to let in and to allow it to embrace. It consists of eight rhythmic circles, based upon probably the same source material, at first sight very minimal but always carrying pulse and melody. Music you can loose yourself in. Let it enter your system. An extremely strong work from one of the most important sound and visual artists today – Carsten Nicolai! On the project: 1884 the term alpeh-1 was introduced by Georg Cantor into the mathematical world. Since then the first letter of the hebrew alphabet, combined with a number has been used to represent the cardinality (or size) of infinite sets.. In Nicolai’s work neither music nor visual art are by-products of one another – the one calls the other into being. Berlin (& Rome) based visual artist/electronic musician and producer Carsten Nicolai performs and records using the pseudonym Alva Noto. Nicolai transforms audio sources ranging from sounds generated within the computer to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s acoustic piano in insen and, more recently, a range of collected recordings of ambient sounds for xerrox. Described as ‘metal machine music of a most beautiful kind’, Nicolai’s powerfully synaesthetic live performances combine minimal electronic sounds and his now legendary real-time visualisation of sound as video or installation. Nicolai’s works captivate consistently through their elegance, simplicity and cool technicism. Carsten Nicolai has performed and exhibited in many of the world’s most prestigious spaces including Tate Modern London, Solomon R. Guggenheim Musuem NYC, San Francisco MOMA, NTT Tokyo, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin and Venice Biennale. His exploration of the physicality of sound continues in his collaborations with Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, his celebrated recordings vrioon and insen with Ryuichi Sakamoto and in the pioneering raster-noton record label he cofounded. Nicolai won Ars Electronica Golden Nica prizes for Digital Music in 2000 and for Interactive Art in 2001.

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