| Univrs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 10 October 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2011 | |||
| Studio | Studio Carsten Nicolai in Berlin | |||
| Genre | Microsound, glitch | |||
| Length | 1:02:44 | |||
| Label | Raster-Noton r-n133 | |||
| Alva Noto chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |    [1] |
| Sputnikmusic | 3.5/5 [2] |
Univrs is the seventh studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. [3] [4] [5] It was released on 10 October 2011 via Raster-Noton label.
The album follows the same concept as Alva Noto's 2008 album Unitxt . While the focus of Unitxt is on the processing of rhythmic patterns ('unit' = unit of measurement, element) and information ('txt' = data, language), Univrs focuses on the conceptual differentiation of a universal language ('universum/universal' = unity, entirety). Like Unitxt, the album features a vocal part by Anne-James Chaton, who reads through three-letter acronyms on the track "uni acronym". [6] The album also contains a visual element. [7] Univrs was followed by the third installment in the trilogy—2018's Unieqav . [8]
A reviewer of ATTN Magazine commented "Univrs is at home at high volume and out of speakers, at which point it makes a very primitive contact with its listener – via bass and recurrent rhythm – and it forcefully demands movement, in both the invisible buzz of air vibration and the dance moves of its audience. Yet it’s never enough to drown out the craftsmanship behind the placement of each beat and the beautiful interaction between elements. Somewhere within that club music euphoria is always embedded an appreciation for Nicolai’s impressive artistry – this is incredibly hypnotic stuff, but never ever mindlessly so". [9]
Matthew Wuethrich of Dusted Magazine stated "The music here is seductive, hypnotic at times. Its droning passages are as exhilarating as its rhythmic ones. But as Univrs progresses, this thrill starts to feel decadent, as if Nicolai is looking for more to say but just keeps utilizing the same vocabulary. The tension that his previous work thrived on, the one that drew on the gap between what we knew and what we were hearing, is gone. It re-emerges on Uni Acronym, where Anne-James Chaton monotones a long alphabetical list of acronyms that rule our life (from BBC and JVC to PVC and XML) over a noisy, percolating techno-funk backdrop. Concept and execution collide, but only for a moment, and even this list starts to seem obvious. Yes, our life is ruled by the data of others, and more often than not we adjust our lives to its patterns, not vice versa. But we know this. And Alva Noto used to tell us things we didn't know, used to do more than just confirm our suspicions". [10]
All tracks are written by Alva Noto.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Uni C" | 6:32 |
| 2. | "Uni Fac" | 4:35 |
| 3. | "Uni Asymmetric Tone" | 1:15 |
| 4. | "Uni Rec (Sounds [Siren Synth - Mutesound] – Martin L. Gore)" | 7:32 |
| 5. | "Uni Dia" | 5:54 |
| 6. | "Uni Iso" | 10:17 |
| 7. | "Uni Mode" | 1:53 |
| 8. | "Uni Acronym (featuring voice of Anne-James Chaton)" | 6:23 |
| 9. | "Uni Asymmetric Noises" | 1:52 |
| 10. | "Uni Deform" | 3:33 |
| 11. | "Uni Asymmetric III-IIII" | 1:29 |
| 12. | "Uni Syc" | 5:00 |
| 13. | "Uni Asymmetric Sweep" | 3:12 |
| 14. | "Uni Pro" | 3:17 |
| Total length: | 1:02:44 | |
Carsten Nicolai is a German artist, musician and label owner. As a musician he is known under the pseudonym Alva Noto.
Insen is the second studio album in an ongoing collaboration between Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and German electronic artist Carsten Nicolai. It was released on 20 March 2005 via Raster-Noton label.
Raster-Noton was a German electronic music record label. It was established in 1999 in Chemnitz, Germany. It emerged from the fusion of Rastermusik, founded by Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider in 1996, and Noton, a sub label that was run by Carsten Nicolai. In 2017, the label split into two entities: Raster, to be run by Bender, and Noton, focusing on Nicolai's output.
Xerrox Vol.1 is the third studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released on March 27, 2007 via Raster-Noton label. This is his first album in the five-piece Xerrox series, followed by Xerrox Vol.2 (2009) and Xerrox Vol.3 (2015).
Xerrox Vol. 2 is the sixth studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. On this record, the author turns to a list of contemporary musicians, including Michael Nyman, Stephen O'Malley, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The record is the second part of his Xerrox quintet of albums.
Vrioon is the debut collaboration album between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, released in 2002. This is the first album in the Virus Series followed by four other records: Insen (2005), Revep (2006), utp_ (2008), and Summvs (2011). The initial letters of the five albums together form the word "Virus".
Andy Moor is an English guitarist best known for his work with Dog Faced Hermans and The Ex.
ANBB is a project between Alva Noto aka Carsten Nicolai and Blixa Bargeld, the singer, guitarist and composer of Einsturzende Neubauten.
Summvs is the fifth collaboration album between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The record was released on 9 May 2011 via Raster-Noton label.
Revep is the third collaboration record between Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and German electronic artist Carsten Nicolai. This EP continues the series titled the Virus Series. The EP was released on 23 May 2006 via Raster-Noton label.
Xerrox Vol.3 is the eighth solo studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. The record was released on 31 March 2015 via Raster-Noton label, continuing his Xerrox pentalogy.
Prototypes is the debut studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released on March 14, 2000 via Mille Plateaux label. For the release, Noto created sound collages from amplified electrical noises, which he arranged into a set of minimal movements.
Transform is the second studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released on September 4, 2001 via Mille Plateaux label. The album was re-released in 2008 via Raster-Noton label. The album is the first part of Alva Noto's Transall series, along with the EPs Transrapid, Transspray, and Transvision (2001–2006).
Aleph-1 is the fourth studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. The record was released on December 31, 2007, via iDeal Recordings label.
Unitxt is the fifth studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released on July 22, 2008 via Raster-Noton label.
"Glass" is an improvisational piece composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai, known by his stage name as Alva Noto, for Yayoi Kusama's installation Dots Obsession—Alive, Seeking for Eternal Hope, which ran in September 2016 at Philip Johnson's Glass House. A film of the performance was uploaded to the Glass House's official Vimeo account and website on November 11, 2016, and an audio recording of the 37-minute composition was released as an album on Nicolai's label NOTON on February 16, 2018. "Glass" is an unconventional ambient piece that uses sounds from a keyboard, glass-made singing bowls, and digital processing of the House's glass walls. The composition consists of developing layers of sounds performed over a single drone. It was praised by many professional reviewers as a display of Sakamoto and Nicolai's growing artistry.
Unieqav is the ninth solo studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. The record was released on 16 March 2018 via Noton label.
Transrapid is an extended play by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released in 2004 via Raster Noton label.
Transvision is an extended play by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released in 2005 via Raster Noton label.
Transspray is an extended play by German electronic artist Alva Noto. It was released in 2005 via Raster Noton label.
