20 years, you say? Well, in that amount of time, humanity has generally embraced the computer revolution, so maybe it’s no surprise that the Raster-Noton brand of minimal computer music has reached welcome ears among people who simultaneously love traditional electronic music and fantasize about going to sleep on a bed of state-of-the-art database servers (spinal integrity be damned).
Chemnitz, Germany-based label officially arrived as a fusion of Rastermusik and Noton in 1996, and since that time, founders Carsten Nicolai (a.k.a. Alva Noto), Olaf Bender (a.k.a. Byetone), and Frank Bretschneider have kept operations and release quality remarkably consistent. Anyone who’s done any digging into the “glitch” sub-genre would be hard-pressed to find a more influential label, and their recent releases from new signees Kyoka and Grischa Litchenberger indicate little sign of imminent deterioration.
As you can imagine, “20 years of something” usually calls for a celebration of some sort; so in an awesome acknowledgement of that anniversary, Raster-Noton have announced a combo retrospective book/catalog (entitled Source Book 1) and compilation CD (entitled archiv 4). The whole package will be available for purchase March 17, but the edition of the 400-page book featuring the “modular design” (which lets owners add, remove, or exchange its pages so that the book can evolve alongside the label itself) is limited to 1000 copies. Check out the full compilation CD’s tracklisting — right after the first “book trailer” that I’ve ever seen — down below.
archiv 4 tracklisting:
01. Kangding Ray - Silver (Pruitt Igoe Prototype)
02. Emptyset - Augur
03. Grischa Lichtenberger - 0514_01 re 0809_20 1 barrg b
04. Alva Noto - Milan (For Kostas Murkudis)
05. Anne-James Chaton - Nisansala
06. Frank Bretschneider - Thermik
07. Senking - Lug
08. Byetone - Postpostrefabricated
09. Atom™ - Flimmern
10. Robert Lippok - Textured
11. Kyoka - Side To Side (Live Rec Version)
12. Ueno Masaaki - Building Rain (Prototype)
More about: Alva Noto, Byetone, Emptyset, Frank Bretschneider, Kangding Ray, Robert Lippok, Senking
