No. 2

Opto, 2nd

Noton, 2004 / 10 songs, 52 Minutes

In 2003 Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) and Thomas Knak (Opiate) produced their 2nd Opto collaboration. The work was initially commissioned in Japan for a clothing line inspired by the forest theme. As part of a commissioned work, the music had to sound organic and reproduce a more melodic feeling compared to the first Opto release (Opto Files, Raster-noton, in 2001). During the same time, Nicolai found an old and damaged cassette in a forest located in the northeast part of Berlin. The tape contained nearly inaudible lo-fi recordings of guitar pieces. The forest ambiance and the old guitar recordings became the template for 2nd. When collaborating on their first Opto album, the two artists exchanged audio files back and forth from their respective studios in Berlin and Copenhagen. This process became part of the concept for 2nd. After receiving assistance to restore the recordings from the magnetic audiotape, Nicolai exchanged the guitar’s sound files with Thomas who started working on the beat structure and added field-recordings of a forest near his studio. The recording process of the tracks was made at different hours across two days – a process that inspired the track titles. The album can be listened in one take as an extended track lasting 48 hours and 40 min, or by selecting the melodic and daylight beats from the moodier and static night productions. In 2nd, DSP and glitch meet the traditional way of sampling concrete sounds. The album was originally released by Hobby Industries on September 13th, 2004.

(Excerpted from www.noton.info/product/n-025/)