Artist Profile: Alva Noto

Carsten Nicolai was born in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany (then Karl-Marx-Stadt, Saxony, East Germany) in 1965. He studied architecture and landscape design before pursuing art. In 1999 he founded Raster-Noton. is a German musician. He uses the stage names Alva Noto, Noto and Aleph-1. He is a member of the music groups Diamond Version with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ryoji Ikeda, and Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto with Ryuichi Sakamoto.


Nicolai has performed and created installations in many of the world's most prestigious spaces including the Guggenheim, New York, the SF MoMA, Modern Art Oxford, NTT Tokyo, Tate Modern and Venice Biennale, Italy. 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 prize at Prix Ars Electronica, 2000.


Carsten Nicolai also works as a visual artist. Using the principles of Cymatics he often visualizes sound. In 2013, Nicolai participated as a visual artist in Noise, an official collateral show of the 55th Venice Biennale of Art, based on Joseph Nechvatal’s book Immersion Into Noise.


Nicolai has recently written an opera, Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, in collaboration with Michael Nyman.

From Wikipedia

Artist Profile: Ryoji Ikeda

Ryoji Ikeda was born in Gifu, Japan in 1966 and is a Japanese sound artist who lives and works in Paris. In addition to working as a solo artist, he has also collaborated with, among others, Carsten Nicolai (under the name "Cyclo.") and the art collective Dumb Type. His work matrix won the Golden Nica Award in 2001.


Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing. The conclusion of his album +/- features just such a tone; of it, Ikeda says "a high frequency sound is used that the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance" (from the CD booklet). Rhythmically, Ikeda's music is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine. His work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse.


In 2004, the dormant Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5) at JFK Airport briefly hosted an art exhibition called Terminal 5 curated by Rachel K. Ward and featuring the work of 18 artists including Ikeda. The show featured work, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the idea of travel — and the terminal's architecture. The show was to run from October 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005— though it closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during the opening party.


In May – June 2011 a presentation of three of the artist's immersive audio/visual projects, The Transfinite, was exhibited at the Park Avenue Armory.






From Wikipedia

Artist Profile: Jarrod Factor

Jarrod Factor has produced for various artforms, in various mediums. Trained in music, film, theatre and media art, he has created innovative content as a sound designer, composer, director, video editor, motion graphics designer, lighting design and online content.

More about his major projects can be found at his official website, but the breadth and varied nature of Factor's output is better appreciated by some of his more obscure contributions.

Music For Film – 2007-2011 Compilation Album

A compilation of Jarrod's film music, released in 2007, but recently remastered with added tracks. Now available across all major music platforms:

Jarrod Factor on iTunes
Jarrod Factor on Google Play
Jarrod Factor on Amazon
Jarrod Factor on Spotify
Jarrod Factor on Soundtracks.net

2 tracks from Jarrod Factor’s Lightly Baked soundtrack featured on Music for Film: Cults, Classics and Curios Discogs entry.

The BBC Countdowns compilation. A very popular YouTube video until it was taken down. Features a continuous mix of all the BBC News Top of the Hour countdowns music. The video version even features information about the music, in 'BBC News-style' graphics'. Compiled and Mixed by Jarrod Factor:
BBC Countdowns Compilation on Grooveshark

More information about the BBC Countdowns Compilation can be found at Jarrod Factor's blog.


Jarrod's final production from Film School is available for purchase on Amazon.com - Insignia - A film by Jarrod Factor

To see more, visit:

Jarrod Factor’s YouTube Channel

Jarrod Factor’s Vimeo Channel

Jarrod Factor – Behance Profile

Jarrod Factor – Reverbnation Profile

Jarrod Factor - Last FM Profile

A more thorough bio can be found here: About Jarrod Factor