Mr John Xela of Type brought Alva Noto to my attention this afternoon with this retweet:
So I wasn’t expecting a piece of ambient glitch. But it is heavy, in a quiet way, which I quite like, and I did some digging.
Alva Noto [is a sound artist] who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes. [He] transforms sound by looping oscillators and tone generators. He does not use sequencers, but edits his work to give his compositions rhythmic structures. Clicks and glitches are not used as ornamental additions to the compositions but make up the essential rhythmic and harmonic elements of the work. He frequently samples electronic information transmission sounds such as fax tones, modem sounds and telephone pops and clicks are sampled and organised, among other overlooked sound sources.
So far so normal for this kind of thing, but I downloaded an album, Transspray, and found it to be full of humour amongst the epic levels of chin-stroking.
Here’s an epic playlist on YouTube which I’ve got running in the background as I work. And I notice on that page that he’s playing the Supersonic Festival in Brum next month. I genuinely had no idea!
I’ll be at the front, smiling and stroking my chin.