Carsten Nicolai (born 18 September 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz) is a German artist, musician and label owner. As a musician he is known under the pseudonym Alva Noto.
Life and career Carsten Nicolai was born in 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in Saxony in the former GDR. He studied landscape architecture at the Technical University of Dresden and graduated with a diploma in 1990.
While still a student, Nicolai began exhibiting as a self-taught visual artist in informal, artist-run contexts, at a time when private galleries were effectively not permitted in the GDR. These early presentations laid the groundwork for his first connection with Galerie Eigen + Art, which would later become one of his longstanding gallery relationships.
In the immediate post reunification years, Nicolai also became an active cultural organiser. Together with other cultural practitioners, he co-founded and for many years ran the Chemnitz art and culture centre VOXXX on the Kaßberg, widely regarded as one of the city's earliest independent cultural initiatives of the period.
In 1994, Nicolai founded the label noton.archiv für ton und nichtton, later known as NOTON. In 1999, NOTON merged with the Chemnitz label RasterMusic under the name Raster-Noton, operating until 2017. Within a few years, the label became internationally recognised and, alongside A Musik and Mille Plateaux, was regarded as a key German platform for experimental electronic music. As a member (and co-founder) of the Raster-Noton label he was responsible for the acclaimed CD series 20 to 2000 that went on to win the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in 2000. In 2017, Raster-Noton was announced to split back into its predecessor labels, and Nicolai has since again released his musical work and collaborations independently via NOTON.
Under the moniker Alva Noto, Nicolai is regarded as one of the best known figures in contemporary electronic music. His musical work reflects aspects of his broader artistic practice, particularly its reductive approach and its engagement with signs, acoustics, and visual structures. Nicolai has performed and created installations at many of the world's most prestigious spaces including the Guggenheim in New York, the SFMOMA in San Francisco, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Modern Art Oxford, the NTT in Tokyo, the Tate Modern in London and the Venice Biennale. His musical projects include collaborations with Ryōji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, Iggy Pop, Blixa Bargeld, Michael Nyman, and Ryūichi Sakamoto. In 2009, Nicolai wrote the opera Sparkie: Cage and Beyond in collaboration with Michael Nyman. In 2015, Nicolai co-scored the music for Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant, together with Ryūichi Sakamoto. The score was nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, Grammy and Critics' Choice Movie Awards. In 2018, he created the sound design for Iñárritu's groundbreaking VR project "Carne y Arena" (Flesh and Sand). In 2022, he received the German Documentary Film Music Award at DOK.fest Munich.
Parallel to his formative work in experimental electronic music, Carsten Nicolai also established himself internationally as a visual artist. Drawing on scientific reference systems, Nicolai explores mathematical patterns such as grids and codes, error and random structures, as well as the phenomenon of self organization. His work spans visual art, sound, and installations based practices. Following his participation in documenta X (1997) and the 49th and 50th Venice Biennale (2001 and 2003), his works entered private and public collections and were presented in exhibitions at major museums and galleries worldwide. Notable solo exhibitions include Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (anti reflex, 2005), Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin (syn chron, 2005), Berlinische Galerie (tele, 2018), Kunstsammlungen Nordrhein Westfalen (parallax symmetry, 2019), and Haus der Kunst Munich (transmitter / receiver – the machine and the gardener, 2022). In 2007, on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Zurich's Haus Konstruktiv, he received the Zurich Art Prize, and in the same year he was awarded a fellowship at the Villa Massimo in Rome. In 2013, Nicolai participated as a visual artist in Biennale Documenta, an official collateral show of the 55th Venice Biennale.
Nicolai has held a professorship in art with a focus on digital and time-based media at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts since 2015. He lives and works in Berlin.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2022: Grau, with Albert Oehlen, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2022: transmitter / receiver − the machine and the gardener, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany 2019: Parallax Symmetry, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany 2019: rota, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany 2018: formula, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2018: tele, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany 2017: organ, St. Anne's chapel in Krobitz, Weira, Germany 2017: parallex, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Japan 2016: unidisplay, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kopenhagen, Denmark 2016: reflektor distortion, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2016: black absorb pol, Seibu Shibuya, Tokio, Japan 2015: unicolor, The Vinyl Factory, London, Great Britain 2015: Strange Attractors, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey 2015: ur-geräusche, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany 2015: unidisplay. Sound in Motion, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany 2015: unitape, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany 2014: alpha pulse, International Commerce Center Hong Kong, Art Basel, Hong Kong, China 2014: unidisplay, SonarPLANTA, The Sorigué Foundation, Barcelona, Spain 2013: crt mgn, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2013: unidisplay, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany 2012: unidisplay, HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy 2012: unidisplay, Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, Canada 2011: pionier, Pace Gallery, New York, USA 2010: polar m [mirrored], YCAM Yamaguchi, Japan 2010: moiré, Pace Gallery, New York, USA 2010: autoR, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany 2010: rota, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Germany 2009: pionier II, Piazza del Plebiscito, Naples, Italy 2009: rota, Schering Stiftung, Berlin, Germany 2008: anti reflex, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany 2008: tired light, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2007: static fades, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland 2007: static balance, Pace Gallery, New York, USA 2006: inver, shown at Frieze Art Fair, London, Great Britain and at Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, Germany 2006: polylit, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany 2005: audio visual spaces, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium 2005: anti reflex, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 2005: syn chron, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, as well as in Bern, Switzerland and in Yamaguchi, Japan 2003: funken, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Germany 2002: International Art Biennial, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2001: frozen water, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany 2000: Ystad Art Museum, Sweden 1999: 1% space, Copenhagen, Denmark 1998: polyfoto, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany 1992: running sap, Galerie Springer, Berlin, Germany 1991: magica II, Lichtinstallation, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany 1986: der keller, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig, Germany
Group exhibitions (selection)
2023: Synesthetic Immersion, 0xCollection, Prague, Czech Republic 2023: Glitch. Die Kunst der Störung, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany 2023: Art in Motion, Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (MOCAUP), China 2022: Broken Music Extended, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany 2022: Art and Industry, Ulsan Art Museum, Korea 2022: Homosphäre, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany 2022: Freezing Point - Kunst unter Null Grad Celsius, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany 2021: Calder Now, Kunsthalle Rotterdam, Netherlands 2021: Ti Zero, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy 2021: Orchestral Manoeuvres: SeeSound. Feel Sound. Be Sound, ArtScience Museum, Singapore 2021: Sound and Silence, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany 2020: Audiosphere. Sound Experimentation 1980-2020, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain 2020: Technology Transformation. Fotografie und Video in der Kunstsammlung, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany 2020: STUDIO BERLIN, Berghain, Berlin, Germany 2020: Doppelleben, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany 2019: SWEET HARMONY: RAVE | TODAY, Saatchi Gallery, London, Great Britain 2019: BIG ORCHESTRA, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany 2019: ELECTRO, Philharmonie de Paris, France 2018: RASTER-NOTON: WHITE CIRCLE, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany 2018: Doppelleben, mumok, Vienna, Austria 2017: How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium 2017: Fishing for islands, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany 2016: Wrap around the time, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea 2015: "Geniale Dilletanten". Subkultur der 1980er-Jahre in Deutschland, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany 2015: Quantum of Disorder, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland 2014: Art on Sound, Fondazione Prada, Venice, Italy 2013: Soundings. A Contemporary Score, MoMA, New York, USA 2013: The magnetic north, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark 2012: Echigo Tsumari Triennial, Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Contemporary Art Museum, Tokomachi, Japan 2011: Yokohama Triennale, Japan 2010: Ruhrtriennale, Dortmund, Germany 2010: Julia Stoschek Collection – I Want To See How You See, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany 2009: The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2008: Tonspur_expanded: Vom Klang der Kunst. The sound of art, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria 2007: 2nd Moscow Biennal, Moscow, Russia 2007: Konstellationen II. Von Gerhard Richter bis Carsten Nicolai, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany 2007: Space for Your Future, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan 2006: Singapore Biennale, Singapore 2003: Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2003: Berlin-Moskau / Moskau-Berlin 1950–2000, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany and Moscow, Russia 2002: Frequenzen [Hz], Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany 2001: Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2001: Quobo, Art in Berlin 89-99, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany 2001: Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey 2000: Volume. Bed of Sound, MoMA PS1, New York, USA 1999: Liverpool Biennal, Great Britain 1997: documenta x, Kassel, Germany 1997: P, S. 1 Reopening, MoMA PS1, New York, USA
Discography Alva Noto solo studio albums Prototypes — 2000 (Mille Plateaux) Transform — 2001 (Mille Plateaux) & re-released on Raster-Noton in 2008 Xerrox Vol.1 — 2007 (Raster-Noton) Unitxt — 2008 (Raster-Noton) Xerrox Vol.2 — 2009 (Raster-Noton) Univrs — 2011 (Raster-Noton) Xerrox Vol.3 — 2015 (Raster-Noton) Unieqav — 2018 (Noton) Xerrox Vol.4 — 2020 (Noton) HYbr:ID I — 2021 (Noton) HYbr:ID II — 2023 (Noton) HYbr:ID III — 2024 (Noton) Xerrox Vol.5 — 2024 (Noton)
Alva Noto as Aleph-1 solo studio album Aleph-1 — 2007 (iDeal)
Alva Noto extended plays (EP) Transrapid — 2005 Raster-Noton Transvision — 2005 Raster-Noton Transspray — 2005 Raster-Noton Unieqav Remixes — featuring reworks by Fatima Al Qadiri, Ben Frost, JASSS, Florian Kupfer, Luis Da Silva — 2020 (Noton)
Alva Noto as noto solo studio albums spin — 1996 (Noton) infinity — 1997 (Noton) infinity (endless loop edition) — 1997 (Noton) kerne — 1998 (Noton) polyfoto — 1998 (Noton) time..dot — 1999 (Noton) empty garden, inside out '— 1999 (Noton) telefunken — 2000 (Noton) endless loop (e, f, g, h) — 2002 (Noton) autorec — 2002 (Noton) sonar endless edition — 2003 (Noton)
Compilation albums For— 2006 (Line) For 2— 2010 (Line)
Soundtrack albums