From Berlin to Italy, from landscape architecture to soundscapes. Alva Noto aka Carsten Nicolai: a fusion of art, science, and rough sound moved by curiosity and collaborations
Alva Noto and Italian connections: a lifelong affinity with Italy
Alva Noto’s relationship with Italy began when he was still a student of landscape architecture in Dresden, in what was then East Germany. As Alva Noto says: «There was a long tradition of German writers, and artists visiting Italy, at least for one year, as a part of a study. I see myself in this kind of tradition, that Italy was always an influence in understanding what is the culture we live in, what is the cultural circle, and understanding the principles of culture or art. I am point between Germany and Italy, that we have this relation to each other».
Alva Noto – continuation between Italy and Germany with the Rome Berlin Festival
In 2007, Alva Noto won a scholarship to Villa Massimo in Rome and has been visiting Italy ever since. «My residency in Villa Massimo created not only an annual event, but together with Andre Jorgens, we established a certain kind of continuation between Italy and Germany with the Rome Berlin Festival. I feel like a place where I’m well understood. I’m fascinated by the history of Italy. It’s not, maybe not hundred percent describable of where my love for Italy comes from. Maybe there is another love, which is Japanese gardens, which has always been inherent in my work. If you do art, you can’t ignore Italy simply as it is. I learned a lot in Villa Massimo. I learned a lot in Rome about the complexity of history and interwoven artistic life. I learned about the Baroque and Renaissance, when artists were not necessarily artists, only when they had a scientific approach. They could be inventors, painters, and philosophers at the same time. This period is inspiring for me. What I explore in my work, to not necessarily strip down to one specific specialized field, to see things are interconnected».
In 2018, together with André Jürgens, he started BERLIN ROM EXPRESS, in collaboration with Villa Massimo. BERLIN ROM EXPRESS is an annual event where international electronic music meets the German academy venue that has been hosting its artists in Rome for almost a century.
Technology, art, and music production. a Symbiotic Relationship
Perhaps inspired by the principles of Bauhaus, Alva Noto turns the union of artistic disciplines into a new cultural unity: «Technology and art are always connected to each other, and specifically in music production. Technology is the toolbox; it gives us more possibilities to create things. The same thing happens maybe with AI, another extension of our toolbox. I do not think that the definition of AI is correct: at the moment it’s not intelligence, it’s a complex machine learning system. Intelligence is a little bit different, is something that has the capability to make and understand mistakes, and learn from these. I don’t see these capabilities in the moment of the existing AI. They are just proposing things created out of a huge amount of data. Even if it looks creative, it’s not as intelligent and creative as we think at the moment. Technology is a toolbox. Science is maybe a way to explain the world, what we’re living in. Art is probably a way of interpretation. So you can’t disconnect them. There is no way not to see them connected».
From landscape architecture to multidisciplinary art, the artistic experimentation of the maestro from Berlin
Alva Noto trained as an architect, specializing in landscape design, artistic experimentation, and many of his recent works seek to define alternative spaces to those we are used to today, rough sound architectures that the artist calls soundscapes. «The education I got is probably auto deductive, thanks to the way and environment in which I grew up, in a relatively smaller city. It was exceptional, and interesting in avant-garde artists who come not from an academic background.
They’ve been writers, philosophers, linguists, and theater filmmakers, all multidisciplinary-oriented people who were not necessarily specialized in one field. You could have explored any expression, you wouldn’t have started limiting yourself: you could play in a concert, do an exhibition, and the next day participate in a group collaboration or a theater piece or an interactive piece.
We can call it multidisciplinary or multimedia-oriented. I think in this kind of environment, creative, I was growing up mostly surrounded by auto deducts, who studied something completely different. This art was not necessarily proposed as odd. It was a way to live your life. This is maybe a fact: I don’t see art necessarily as an expression of your life. I see art as life. That’s your life. It’s not a part, that’s you actually».
Weaving rough Sound, Form, and Expression – Alva Noto
He explores the transitional areas between music, art and science, overcoming the usual perceptual and sensory barriers of the different disciplines, trying to synthesize sound and light into one immersive, multi-sensory experience. «I have explored many years of rough sound experience in architectural spaces because I think there is an interwoven. I did a piece many years ago called Synchron. The name says already that’s all synchronized. The goal of this piece was to explore or to execute a piece where rough sound, shape, architectural space and social components are all interwoven.
There is only one point where they meet as a surface, a surface in three-dimensional space creates rough architecture, architecture at the same time is a speaker system, it’s a projection system, it’s a light system. When I started working with sound, I was always very interested in this interaction between visuals and sound».
Alva Noto and Ryūichi Sakamoto – a long journey, together we performed many tours in Italy
Throughout his career, Alva Noto has made musical, visual and cinematographic collaborations one of his signature traits. «I have a quite long list of artists I collaborated with, and maybe one of the most fruitful collaborations has been the one with Ryūichi Sakamoto; we have a long journey, together we performed many tours in Italy as well, and during the process of performing, you create as well. We constantly improvised.
Specifically, the last performances we did together were much more focused on improvisation rather than on playing existing compositions. I think collaboration is a keyword for the future. It’s a process of learning, opening up, and curiosity, as well as collaborating in the best way. They can create something that you’ve been not able to create if you’ve been singular. I’m a strong believer that we have a lot of stuff that we can explore».
Two decades of creative harmony with Ryūichi Sakamoto
In 2002, Alva Noto released the first of a series of collaborations with Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. «The collaboration with Ryūichi Sakamoto was incredible, fruitful, and a long journey. For more than 20 years we worked together. We recorded eight albums. It’s a huge body of work. Actually, I think I recorded together with him more albums as I did solo. This collaboration was a huge learning process, but at the same time a huge enrichment of my life because it became a close friendship. As I mentioned in many interviews, one of my biggest loves is Japanese gardens and the philosophy behind the Japanese gardens. This kind of strong association is where I see myself drawn to Asian or Asian culture. In the same way, maybe you could see Ryūichi’s biography being influenced by Debussy or by European culture. So we kind of met on a natural and neutral ground and collaborated.
Something where both of these projections into each other’s culture start merging and maybe because of the minimalist approach and the minimalistic toolbox we used, being essential and stripped down and pure, but at the same time, naturally, organic, interwoven and intersecting. If I needed to describe this relationship with one or two keywords, we’ve been almost like a twin being curious. We have not been necessarily interested in one specific idea or one specialized topic field. We’ve been open-minded and finding a partner in this kind of field had a huge relevance for me and will carry on, of course, in the future. I miss him a lot, but I’m in a kind of telepathic connection with him. Even if his physical presence does not exist in this world, he is still for me and I continue working with him, maybe in a different way now».
Alva Noto, HYbr:ID – an evolving artistic experimentation
On 13 October, he published the second artistic experimentation of the HYbr:ID series that began in 2021, suggesting a journey through the world of digitally manipulated production.
«I have started multiple projects sometimes over a long period of time: I still have to finish the Xerrox series, and I still have to continue the concepts that I developed over the last ten years. I have my kind of agenda. Many of my projects growing on a long-term scale, started five, six, or seven years ago, and they are slowly evolving. Part of the artistic process is that you get a clearer idea of how the result will turn out. Maybe there is a vision formulated in the beginning and maybe there is a question of how this can be shaped. What will be the future of this project?
This is probably something that I’m much more interested in at the moment. I call them atmospheres. Creating complex spaces that are not necessarily only technology, science, rough sound, or art. I see this as more complex. That’s the reason I call them atmospheres, I want to create a complete atmosphere. There is a series of films I am shooting at the moment. There is a series of books I continue. There’s a series of recordings I want to finish or want to continue. So the exploration and unexpected journey continues. I would say I’m still in this odyssey of artistic life».
Alva Noto from Berlin to Italy
Carsten Nicolai, known musically as Alva Noto, is a German artist and musician. He has a background in architecture, especially rough architecture. He was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1965 and is known as an artist halfway between music, visual art, and science by exploring minimalist aesthetics. Nicolai has collaborated with figures like Ryuichi Sakamoto and performed at venues worldwide and is famous for his artistic experimentations.
