alva noto

Carsten 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. Using micro-editing, Nicolai processes these sounds to create musical abstractions that are precise in both form and concept with electronic clicks and glitches as essential elements. 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 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 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 co-founded. Nicolai won Ars Electronica Golden Nica prizes for Digital Music in 2000 and for Interactive Art in 2001.