Lost And Sound
Lost and Sound is a podcast exploring the most exciting and innovative voices in underground, electronic, and leftfield music worldwide. Hosted by Berlin-based writer Paul Hanford, each episode features in-depth, free-flowing conversations with artists, producers, and pioneers who push music forward in their own unique way.
From legendary innovators to emerging mavericks, Paul dives into the intersection of music, creativity, and life, uncovering deep insights into the artistic process. His relaxed, open-ended approach allows guests to express themselves fully, offering an intimate perspective on the minds shaping contemporary sound.
Originally launched with support from Arts Council England, Lost and Sound has featured groundbreaking artists including Suzanne Ciani, Peaches, Laurent Garnier, Chilly Gonzales, Sleaford Mods, Nightmares On Wax, Graham Coxon, Saint Etienne, Ellen Allien, A Guy Called Gerald, Jean Michel Jarre, Liars, Blixa Bargeld, Hania Rani, Roman Flügel, Róisín Murphy, Jim O’Rourke, Yann Tiersen, Thurston Moore, Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family), Caterina Barbieri, Rudy Tambala (A.R. Kane), more eaze, Tesfa Williams, Slikback, NikNak, and Alva Noto.
Paul Hanford is a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller whose work bridges music, culture, and human connection. His debut book, Coming to Berlin, is available in all good bookshops.
Lost and Sound is for listeners passionate about electronic music, experimental sound, and the people redefining what music can be.
Lost And Sound
Alva Noto
Alva Noto—aka Carsten Nicolai—has spent decades at the forefront of experimental electronic music and multimedia art. Growing up in East Germany, his work has been shaped by the country’s stark aesthetics, Leipzig’s bookmaking traditions, and the GDR’s Bauhaus-influenced design. In this episode, we talk about minimalism, sound as texture, the NOTON label and how his collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto (including The Revenant soundtrack) have redefined electronic music.
Carsten takes us back to the late ’80s and ’90s—a time when electronic music was shifting from analog to digital, opening up new creative possibilities. He shares how artists like Kraftwerk and Brian Eno paved the way for his work and how embracing imperfections in technology led to the birth of glitch.
We also explore how music distribution evolved from CDs to MP3s, how that shaped the way we experience sound, and what it means for artists today. Plus, Carsten reflects on his friendship with Ryuichi Sakamoto and their artistic journey together.
Listen in for a deep dive into sound, technology, and the art of pushing boundaries.
If you’re enjoying Lost and Sound, please do subscribe and leave a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.
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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica
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Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins
today I'm joined by one of the godfathers of glitch. Alvin otto has brought a sense of architectural grace to electronic music for over 30 years now. Hi, I'm paul hamford, and welcome to lost and sound, the podcast that goes behind the scenes with innovative and pioneering music people. But before we get going, a shout to my sponsor, audio technica, the global but family-run company that make the headphones that I'm wearing right now and whose mic you hear me do every interview through. They make studio quality yet affordable products because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to audio technicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. Okay, so you're about to hear a chat with alvin otto. Thank you, hello, and welcome to episode 159 of Lost in Sound.
Speaker 1:I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster and a lecturer, and Lost in Sound is the weekly podcast where I chat with an artist who works outside the box, from global icons to trailblazing outsiders and emerging innovators. We talk about music, music, creativity and perhaps the most daunting part of being an artist the praxis of life. Previous guests on the show have included peaches, suzanne shiani, jim o'rourke, cozy funny, tutti, mickey blanco, and, first and more, and as always, it's really nice to hear your thoughts on the show and I've had some really nice messages regarding last week's episode with Nick Knack. My DMs on Instagram are always open for feedback and comments. It's always really really nice to hear from you, and today, well, it's really cold. For a start. I'm sat, um, basically, uh, by a door in a snowy Neukölln in Berlin speaking to you, and it's on a Sunday, and you can have a conversation, a minute I had with an artist whose work has had a profound connection with sound technology and design since the 90s, and when I think of people that have a really unified aesthetic that spans multiple mediums, then multimedia artist Carsten Nicolai, better known as Alvin Otto, has got to be really, really, really high up there.
Speaker 1:Over the last 30 years, he's made some of the most sleek experimental music out, as well as that visual art and collaborations with everyone from Iggy Pop to previous Lost and Sound guest, blixer, bargeld, to the late, late great Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom he collaborated multiple times, most famously perhaps on the soundtrack to the film the Revenant. That's the film, if you remember, that got Leonardo DiCaprio the Oscar for his very realistic depiction of getting mauled by a bear. Tied in seamlessly with his own music are the two labels he's associated with Notan, which he set up in 1994, and the extended period where Nikolai joined forces with Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider, becoming Rasta Noten. And one of the things that is key to how his sound developed in the 90s is how much of the music he is associated with feels connected to being in dialogue with the technology of the time, really pushing the limits of cd technology and laptops also being quite a new thing back then, and this leading on to what we consider to be glitch. And while fellow german oval is often considered to have pioneered the whole aesthetic of glitch by manipulating cds in ways that they certainly weren't meant for, karsten took glitch into a more minimalist, structured and conceptual realm.
Speaker 1:But before we get going, and if you've not already, please give the show a subscribe. It really, really, really helps. Give the show a rating and a review on Spotify, amazon, apple, wherever you like to listen to the show, do give it a review if you have the time. It's super, super appreciated or a rating. It really really helps boost the show. Okay, so back to the conversation. We only had 30 minutes to chat. These were the guidelines set out, so there was a lot to cram in. I would have loved to have chatted longer, and Carsten very, very generously let the conversation roll on a bit longer. Yep, so we had this chat on Monday, the 10th of February 2025, and this is what happened when I met Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Notto. How are you doing? How's things going?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I'm good, Busy as usual, but in a good way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good to hear it. So, carsten Nicolau, welcome to Lost in Sound. Your work covers music as Elvinotto, you're behind two hugely influential labels over the last 25 years covers visual art, soundtracks and beyond, and no, it seems like there's a very well considered and very consistent aesthetic to everything you do. I'm sure there's a whole lifetime of work that goes into that, but is there anything that you feel is like really at the root of what drives this very consistent aesthetic?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean this is, let's say, I have to go a little bit back into the past. I mean, basically I started more from the visual arts field background and I studied architecture as specifically landscape design, and I as well. I grew up in a situation like I grew up in east germany in the gdr times, so more or less we've been kind of limited to access music or music stores. Uh, we could listen to radio and watch TV, but we could not just go to a record store and buy a new record or something or have a book.
Speaker 2:But the region where I come from, specifically Leipzig, the city of Leipzig, has a very long tradition in bookmaking and graphic design, specifically quite early from the 20s on, was a huge production.
Speaker 2:So this, and of course, we've been very much influenced from, let's say, the modernistic design of the GDR time, so it was very much following the Bauhaus tradition and considering this, I think this being basically the surrounding, this was the mind-setting as well. And as I started basically working with sound and as the point came, as we started, making a label for us was very important, that not just to do the music for us was as well very important the covers, or how it's which format we're using, how everything is presented and how the live shows look like, how the flyers look like, and maybe because, as well, we had a strong graphic design influence we've been always very careful about this and maybe with the opportunity that when you started your own label, you can control pretty much everything yourself, and maybe as of course not, maybe, I think, of course then I was buying a record, or I could receive a record what was not officially available in the east, but I could get something in Budapest, in Hungary, there'd been some record stores.
Speaker 2:So for us, the physical object of the record was something incredibly important. So the sleeve, the information, everything that was printed, it was part of the music.
Speaker 2:Because basically we'd been kind of super hungry about any kind of information you could get, so and as well. I think probably it was the same period when I start listening to my first albums. It was a period where artists basically released a lot of concept albums. So maybe one of the earliest record, maybe what I remember was a very early recording of Genesis before before before they split up. So they they basically there've been a lot of records, basically who've been almost released Like uh, let's say, it was not just 10 songs, it was sometimes a story there was sometimes the cover was working with it. Everything was basically we have a german word like almost like a gesamtkunstwerk. There was something like everything was taken into account, and I think this was, of course, very influential.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, no, definitely, yeah, I mean, I mean you mentioned about genesis there, but what would the other other specific like early influences back when you were growing up, like particular ones that that led into crossing over from, because you know you studied visual arts and landscape architecture as well, but the really helped you push over into sound and music?
Speaker 2:I think, in the very early moments where I didn't know that I will ever move in the territory of sound. Maybe one of the very early recordings has been, of course, maybe Laurie Anderson's United States album. This is an incredible, fantastic release, I think, still until today. I think it's great as well because it was the first time as well that I had a feeling that the artist is not just a document, it's as well a performance. It feels like it's art in the same time as it's music. It incorporates a lot of avant-gardistic ideas, influences from Steve Reich or a Meredith Monk Meredith Monk.
Speaker 2:So it merged something. What something was before not so easily appearing, maybe as well. I mean, this was a great period as well when I started as a teenager listening to stuff. This time came out the first Kraftwerk records like Computer Love. Then was the Eichhörnchen Neubauten at the same time. At the same time came out all the Brian Eno stuff. The sampler was appearing. Depeche Mode appeared as well, which was very huge as well, for East Germany at least. So it felt like it's a new era as well of music, sonically as well. And then later, I think In the moment and you have to understand historically until 89, it was very difficult to get any equipment for us.
Speaker 2:Like a synthesizer sampler has been absolutely out of range. You could do tape experiments but to get a sampler was almost impossible because, a we had no money, b we had no access, and if you think about I mean there was the currency exchange in this time on the black market was 1 to 10. So it means when I bought a record just to give you an example, a record that was not available in the East was around 100 mark and the normal average income in this period was something like between 800 and 900 and nine hundred mark a month right, okay, yeah you spent buying a record for one, let's say, one tenth or one eighth of your income.
Speaker 2:That was. That was as well, quite precious right, right Equipment was so much that you basically would need to save money for at least five or six years to buy one piece of equipment. What was in when you've been like 16, 17,. It was like you could buy a sampler, probably in five years or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it's moved on as well. By the time you've got that sampler yeah, so so it.
Speaker 2:So just to describe it. Then suddenly the wall came down. We've been basically in this fantastic new situation you could travel anywhere, everything was available. Suddenly, computers been available easily and as well, our currency was suddenly one to one, one to ten anymore, so we could afford things. And then then as well the same time, a completely new electronic sound appeared, what now today we would call techno, and I think in this moment came so many interesting music out.
Speaker 2:What was not classically released as 80s music with covers and names and pictures of artists, suddenly there have been like, not even artist names anymore. It was just, you went to a store or bought a bunch of records. Sometimes you didn't know who produced it because there was no credits on the record. And I think one of the, let's say, one of the most influential records a little bit late, was maybe the Vakio album from Panasonic. And in this period as well I was the first time I came across Seikö from Finland, and maybe a little bit more earlier, of course, because we've been much more popular was maybe Warp, the early Warp record. Yeah, so I think this was a moment as well where you had the feeling okay, this is basically suddenly your generation starts talking. Yeah, I mean, this has all been people basically in my age, and so you suddenly felt like this is the right soundtrack for the right time as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because when you're talking about your generation talking, I think what is really interesting about going back to a lot of the work that you were doing both as an artist and with the label in in the mid to late 90s, was this idea of the computer sounding very modern and computer using like frequencies that, like we came to kind of call things like glitch um, which seemed to be like a very much a product of the technology that was using and and seemed in my mind to give it a different context from a lot of the electronic music that you mentioned growing up with, like the Depeche modes and Laurie Andersons, which was very sort of like analog in a way. You know. I mean, what was your relationship with at the time using this equipment, like, were you using laptops at this point?
Speaker 2:in the very early stage I used analog equipment, but in the moment I was basically start traveling a lot, I mainly switched to digital computers and with this possibility of switching to computers, then you have a different tool in in your hands. Basically, you're not so. I mean, we can talk about micro editing here, do you can? Uh, basically, it's completely different way of music production and you could, of course, of music production, and you could, of course, you can be much more precise in terms of timings.
Speaker 2:You don't have all these hardware problems of syncing, all your little synthesizers, midi. Actually, I learned MIDI very late actually, because in the beginning I was everything producing digitally but at the same time time, you have to understand, in the period when we or when I started using computers, they been not so fast.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah most of the processing was done offline, I mean basically was not in real time. It's a it's very difficult to understand it from today's point of view where you basically throw a plugin and it's automatically calculating something for you. We had basically to do it to let it render and see what comes out of it. If the result was okay, it was okay. If the result was basically glitchy and, uh, basically something went completely wrong. And this is maybe as well the starting point when you think about, ah, what? Uh, this is basically the computer pro is obviously not calculating precisely things. And then you think like, but it's interesting material what he produced. Obviously Peter has a creative life too, yeah, I mean he something. And then the end, you get a completely different result, as you also expecting. So maybe because of the limitations of the computing power in this time as well, so maybe because of the limitations of the computing power in this time as well, you've been basically very much confronted with a lot of unexpected mistakes.
Speaker 2:But in the same time this was more like philosophically speaking, I was very much interested in basically artificial intelligence. Now this word is completely different, used as by the time, but I was reading some MIT in this time was MIT publishing some journals called Artificial Intelligence, where basically scientists tried to find the starting point where they could research at which point computers can have a creative life. And it was a very interesting article, from a Japanese scientist actually, and he basically let computers calculate very simple let's say a method or like a simple equation, but so many times what he described as loops, and then until this the computer made a mistake inside. So they created a kind of loop system, calculation loop system where basically he just waited until the computer did mistakes and then this mistake will lead to another mistake maybe, and then the loops are and they're trying to observe if there is any pattern behind this.
Speaker 2:And I found this incredible. Interesting from the first point of view was we're always thinking about mistakes in a negative way. And then I thought like it's really interesting for me that basically they look into mistakes as a starting point for creativity. So I was really much interested in this kind of mistakes, errors or miscalculations. That's why I saw a lot of creative opportunities. Maybe that was the reason why I started incorporating a lot of what you say glitch.
Speaker 2:I mean at this time there was a group of people working with this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:There was no name for that kind of music, there was no genre and there was nothing in this period. And on the other hand, as we started the label, we've been 100% sure that the only media we could release this was a CD, because all this very abstract digital errors being only reproducible on a digital media, yes, yeah. So records being for us, even if techno was so much embracing the technology again, and the clubs for us, it was clear that this stuff is, it cannot release on a record because it was physically not possible, technically not possible as well. And at the same time we realized that we have a frequency range here that is basically pushing to the limits of even the CD media. So we had releases put out.
Speaker 2:We had one release I think it was a Ryoji Ikeda release where basically some of the CD players took some sounds as a signal to skip to the next track. So we released this record and actually at the beginning we had a lot of complaints and I thought actually it's fantastic if you would intend to do that would be probably not possible, but but but I thought like, yeah, even the cd player becomes a creative part of yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:I mean, and now it's like, um, I guess I the quality of mp3s and streaming has gone up, but like maybe 15, 20 years ago, there was the whole torrenting and limewire kind of era where there was such a downgrade of quality but like a upgrade in terms of the amount of consumption that people were discovering new music. Did this have an effect on how you were making music yourself or a consideration on how you were thinking, oh, how are people gonna experience the music that you were putting out?
Speaker 2:I mean we. I mean we because we produced the music, but as well, we distributed the music. And then we did some first experiments like putting our own tracks into the, converted into MP3s and basically the tracks being completely destroyed like completely different sound. So and I remember it sounds really weird we had a conversation and said do we want to join MP3, the MP3 movement, or we simply refuse it? And in this time we've been very aware that basically this is not actually our choice here. It will happen without or without us.
Speaker 2:So in the very beginning we've been just very carefully informing everybody. If they convert a CD into MP3 or if they're downloading somewhere, then probably they not get the track they're expecting or maybe it sounds completely different, as was intended to be, but at the same time it was very clear that you could download an album. I mean we've been incredibly well distributed through this torrent uh nap store situation. So we basically been. I mean it was a big advantage for us because we got basically the biggest distribution system ever, because before there was only like record stores and suddenly you've been available all over the world where internet access was was. So people in China, in Korea, in in South America could basically listen to our music, even if they didn't pay, but they, they could listen to it.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, these people being very aware that the original release probably sounds completely different yeah, a lot of people have heard your music perhaps outside of the people that would usually hear your music in terms of like your collaborations with Ryuki Sakamoto, particularly the Re last year. But I was wanting to just ask you about like your collaborative relationship with him. You know, like what were the things that you felt really created a bond between you when you were working together?
Speaker 2:I mean first of all the, the, the relation with Richie, or I mean first of all the relation with Richie. I mean our friendship was beyond a collaborative situation only. This was much more, but this was growing over many years. I mean we recorded in the end more than eight albums, the Revenant soundtrack as well, and then we were touring a lot and the first five records were this I call it virus because the starting point of the letters makes this virus word, makes this virus world.
Speaker 2:Basically, in the very beginning, I think was a normal remix offer from Rui Chi and he was actually came to my first concert in Tokyo. I didn't know that he was interested in this kind of music, but obviously he saw something. I didn't know that he was interested in this kind of music, but obviously he saw something in this music. He saw something. I mean this was a night that was actually Potter Ricks playing Ryoji Ikeda, oval and myself, so obviously he saw there is a kind of different kind of movement. And after the show I was introduced to him and he offered me a remix and in this period he was actually recording bosanova, a bosanova album. It's a completely different style of music and I found it really interesting that he offers me a Bossa Nova remix, because in this period I was pure sine wave noise and some distortions. So I mean it was. I mean he saw something in this. He saw some much more musical approach in this, as maybe I saw myself in this kind of start, start, the early phase of no tour in this period and as we started recording. I mean it's pretty known that basically it was a very simple recipe, like pure piano and very simple, let's say pulses, sine waves, or I mean a very reduced palette of sounds, very minimal in a way, and maybe for my taste it always felt like Japanese, minimalistic, and on the other hand it incorporated something that in this period was a bit unusual an acoustic instrument, a classical acoustic instrument that has actually a very strong traditional reference and history.
Speaker 2:And this was something, let's say, in the beginning I was a little bit doubtful if this is the right direction, because I was much more radical, thinking that I wanted to break with all musical rules not involving melody or like harmony, that that basically rewriting, basically the idea what is music, and maybe this record, and I think specifically the collaboration with Richie, was bridging two worlds and maybe as well.
Speaker 2:This is probably for most of the people who started listening to my music, the access point before they maybe listened more to electronic stuff or pure experimental stuff. Because this, basically this collaboration, was as well interesting for people who come from an acoustic background or playing the piano or playing instruments, and in the same time, it was interesting for people who come from an acoustic background or playing the piano or playing instruments and in the same time, it was interesting from people who come from a very pure electronic background. And in the moment we started that that idea of pure piano with very simple, stripped-down electronics was very, I mean, I didn't know anyone who was working in this kind of domain. So maybe there have been a few tracks from FX, like what was some piano, tracks from Piano Inspired maybe French or John Cage or something or like sati, but but in this kind of combination it didn't, didn't. Uh, it felt pretty new, I would say, compared to today's situation. We all, I mean it's pretty normal.
Speaker 1:Now I would say it's yeah I just wanted to ask you, finally, about your hybrid series. It feels like there's a lot of things like in the most recent one, a lot of orchestral elements that go into it, that there's a lot of you know, almost in a way like kind of a bending and a manipulation of traditional sound that gets contextualised within more familiar elements of what you do and I was wondering what's the concept behind the series? Is there a concept that joins the series together?
Speaker 2:yeah, I started hybrid. Uh, for a simple reason because before I had two other series started. What was the Uni series? What was pure rhythmic electronics? And then there was the Xerox series, which was completely, almost the opposite. It was non-rhythmic, more soundtrack oriented, not so necessarily very pure electronics as well, using samples or string sounds and much more related maybe to acoustic body of orchestra rather than electronics. So I had these two worlds and then I realized that I'm always separate that both worlds, and that's the reason it's called hybrid as well, because I wanted to go back to an album basically where I'm not necessarily make only ambient or only rhythmic. So I wanted to merge basically both worlds and create a hybrid situation. So that was the reason it's called Hybrid, but in the same time Hybrid as well. The Hybrid series.
Speaker 2:This is all pieces who have been as well used for ballet, and when I wrote these albums I mean each of it's just three albums now, but each one I was already thinking about a choreographed evening. So for me was clear that I want to have a lot of contrast in the album. Me was clear that I want to have a lot of contrast in the album, like from really experimental to maybe more melodic and maybe so bridging everything what maybe before was also separated in this, serious concepts like serial, not not serious. So and then during the production I really what I really really appreciate as well, like was I was really careful about sculpting specific sounds because I work not so maximalistic, it's quite minimal, yes, my work. So each sound, what I, what I use, I'm really almost I'm, I see this almost like a sculptural element, so I really shaped it until I really felt now this sound sounds right, because they are so singular sometimes that they are really sitting like monolithic inside a track. So I had a much stronger focus on production in a way, on sound production, and these albums are not being never really considered from my side to play live. So this was more like, maybe because they've been used as well for ballet pieces.
Speaker 2:It was clear for me this is going to be a playback, that it's maybe more something for listening, and that's as well what I did in the last year when somebody asked me to present hybrid. I presented actually in listening spaces. So really beautiful designed multi-ch in listening spaces. So really beautiful designed multi-channel listening spaces. Just right now is in Mexico City is still all free hybrid albums. You can go there and basically go into a fantastic, well built, acoustically treated space with 18 channel of speakers and you can listen to these albums. And I had before I presented this in rome, in italy, so so I was very much aware that this is more a listening album rather than an album. What is going to be I'm going to play in concert halls or in clubs or in festivals. I think I was much more keen on presenting this in a right, acoustic, well-treated space.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So does that open up the potential for you creatively, knowing that you have something very set to work towards, because you know you're working towards with the hybrid? You know that is a listening experience, that it has a particular destination point. Does that kind of particularness inspire you creatively or do you find that like a restriction particularness?
Speaker 2:inspire you creatively or do you find that like a restriction? I find this really, uh, inspiring actually, because if you are, if you, I mean you mentioned as well mp3 and the advantage of a really fast and easy accessible distribution system, but in the same time, we lost, of course, a lot of the audio quality. Right, I mean, this was the price we paid for. But when you are in music production and and as as an electronic musician, you not just work creatively, you as well do your own mixing, you do your own post-production, right, I mean, it's part of the process. So you are really careful about, uh, the mixing, the sounds, the frequency ranges, the mastering, everything. And in a way, you're realizing when you go somewhere and that the sound quality somebody listens just on a boombox or whatever. Actually, I miss this opportunity that people can listen again to the real thing, to the like, actually how it was meant to be. Like that's the right environment and I found I mean maybe this confirms as well a little bit this trend where we have in berlin now I know from japan, but I think it's a little bit kind of trend where people have listening bars here, where people go, yes, on really specific, well acoustically and fantastic equipment, but maybe nobody can afford for the house To listen to this kind of situation.
Speaker 2:If once you experience this, then you understand that it can create a quite impressive situation for the listener and then you understand as well how things are produced. I mean, I don't need to tell you because I mean obviously you know exactly how important a good speaker system is in order to listen to the music, specifically music maybe. What, in my case, is using the whole frequency spectrum, what is reproducible in a normal format of 44.1, 44k, 16-bit or something. So this frequency range I completely use. I'm not limited myself. I mean, probably I use as well higher frequencies. But and this is really something I really appreciate a lot, and I think maybe I can see here a lot of the younger generation when they're producing music or they're listening to their own music on the right monitor systems, they're realizing wow, there's a lot of opportunity here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like using good ingredients when you're cooking it.
Speaker 2:it's yeah, I mean it's. I mean, basically the cooking is earlier, it's, it's. It's a little bit like that. You're that you lose your part of your sense because you cannot smell or something and then trying to eat something. Yeah, I mean, it's a bit like this mono and stereo. I mean I think everybody who has a little bit experience with listening to music or sound will exactly know what I'm talking about absolutely, absolutely, karsten.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it. Thank you, okay. So that was me, paul hanford, talking with alva notto for the lost and sound podcast, and we had that conversation on monday, the 10th of february 2025. Thank you so much, karsten, for sharing your thoughts and time with me there. And if you're a listener that's in berlin, um, and you haven't already, do go and check out the notan shop, which is at store 77 on potsdam, astraza.
Speaker 1:This is a temporary pop-up exhibition slash shop for carsten's work and it's there till march the 1st. It's like a real hybrid of exhibition and and shop and it's got really that essence of of like what makes his design and sound so singular. It was kind of weird actually, because, like, I didn't know anything about it and the day after we had the conversation, I was just walking along the street and I looked in the shop window and I was like fuck, that looks really familiar, that looks like that looks like loads and loads of alvinotto and notan stuff. And I went in and there it was and and yeah, yeah, uh, if you like his music and his design, do go and check it out. Um, if you like the show, if you like lost in sound and you haven't already. Please give it a subscribe. Give the show a rating and a review on your platform of choice, if you have time and if you're inclined, and I'm super grateful of of anyone that does that. Thank you so so much. If you do, um, you can listen to my radio documentary the man who smuggled punk rock across the berlin wall by heading on over to the bbc sounds app or on the world service home page, and my book coming to berlin is still available in all good bookshops or via the publisher's website, velocity Press.
Speaker 1:Lost in Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica, the global but family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones, studio-quality yet affordable products, because they believe that high-quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to Audio-Technicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. So, yeah, the music that you hear at the beginning, at the end, of every episode of Lost in Sound is by Thomas Giddens Hyperlink, as always in the podcast description, and that's it. My fingers are really, really cold, and so I'm going to go inside and make a nice cup of tea. I hope, whatever you're doing today, you're having a fucking great one, and I look forward to chatting to you soon. Thank you.