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| Raster-Noton | |
|---|---|
| Name | Raster-Noton |
| Background | label |
| Origin | Germany |
| Years active | 1996–2017 |
| Associated acts | Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider |
Raster-Noton Raster-Noton was a German independent record label and art collective influential in contemporary electronic music, sound art, and visual design. The project united artists and designers from Dresden, Berlin, Leipzig and presented works across Documenta, Centre Pompidou, Mori Art Museum, MoMA, and TATE Modern. Raster-Noton operated at the intersection of composition, installation, and graphic identity collaborating with institutions such as the BBC Philharmonic, Berliner Festspiele, Sonar, Mutek, and CTM Festival.
Raster-Noton emerged from a lineage of European electronic music and design movements connected to Krautrock, Minimalism (music), Fluxus, Bauhaus, and Concrete music. Early precursors and contemporaries included Kraftwerk, Cluster (band), Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Merzbow, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Oval (band), Fennesz, Pan Sonic, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and Harold Budd. The label consolidated practices from the 1990s European experimental network involving Raster (label), Noton (label), Force Inc., Mille Plateaux, Rastermedia, Thrill Jockey, and Warp Records.
Raster-Noton was formed by visual artist and composer Carsten Nicolai (active under Alva Noto), graphic designer Olaf Bender (founder of Noton), and musician Frank Bretschneider, linking them to collaborators such as Ryoji Ikeda, Ricardo Villalobos, Akio Suzuki, Toshimaru Nakamura, Laurent Garnier, Daito Manabe, Ralf Hütter, Andreas Dorau, Yasunao Tone, Christian Marclay, and John Tilbury. Institutional partners and curators involved came from ZKM, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Hayward Gallery, Kunsthalle Zürich, ICA London, Südwestfunk, SWR, NRW Forum, Frankfurter Kunstverein, The Barbican, and Vilém Flusser Archive.
Raster-Noton's aesthetic fused influences from Glitch (music), Minimal techno, Ambient music, Drone music, Microsound, Electroacoustic music, and Noise music, aligning with practices by Ricardo Villalobos, Amon Tobin, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Squarepusher, Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Ian William Craig, Ben Frost, Arvo Pärt, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Zbigniew Preisner. Visual minimalism referenced Bauhaus and designers like Josef Müller-Brockmann, Massimo Vignelli, Dieter Rams, Emil Ruder, Paul Renner, and artists such as Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, and Bruce Nauman.
Significant catalog entries included series and albums by Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Frank Bretschneider, Byetone, Noto, and collaborative works with Blixa Bargeld, Mika Vainio, Fennesz, Seiichi Yamamoto, Oval, Jan Jelinek, Georg Friedrich Haas, Christian Fennesz, Philip Jeck, and Squarepusher. Landmark releases and projects were presented alongside retrospective exhibitions for figures like Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Merzbow, Throbbing Gristle, Holger Czukay, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich at venues including MoMA PS1, Southbank Centre, Hayward Gallery, Kunsthalle Basel, Hamburger Bahnhof, Neue Nationalgalerie, and Schirn Kunsthalle.
The label's visual program referenced typographic and grid systems tied to Josef Albers, Jan Tschichold, Herbert Bayer, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, Max Bill, and László Moholy-Nagy. Album artwork, installations, and concert visuals linked to exhibitions curated by Germano Celant, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Harald Szeemann, Rudolf Frieling, Beatrix Ruf, and Klaus Biesenbach, and collaborations with graphic designers associated with EMI Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Mute Records, Factory Records, and Island Records.
Raster-Noton artists and curators frequently collaborated with festivals and institutions such as Sonar, Mutek, CTM Festival, Unsound Festival, Transmediale, ACM, Björk's Biophilia project, Berlin Atonal, MaerzMusik, ECLAT Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, Wired Festival, and performances at venues like Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Opera City, Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Philharmonie de Paris.
Raster-Noton's influence extended to artists, labels, and institutions including Warp Records, Mille Plateaux, Raster (label), Noton (label), Sonic Acts, ZKM, KHM, CERN collaborations, and practitioners like Rival Consoles, Oneohtrix Point Never, Holly Herndon, Actress (musician), Jon Hopkins, Clark (musician), Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Ben Frost, Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, Frank Bretschneider, Byetone, Oval, Jan Jelinek, Akira Rabelais, and William Basinski. The label shaped contemporary curation at institutions such as TATE Modern, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, ZKM, Serpentine Galleries, and influenced cross-disciplinary pedagogy at Royal College of Art, Berlin University of the Arts, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Sonic Arts Research Centre, and IRCAM.
Category:German record labels