Univrs is the seventh studio album by German electronic artist Alva Noto. Released in 2011, the album follows the same concept as Alva Noto’s 2008 LP Unitxt. While the focus of Unitxt is on the processing of rhythmic patterns (‘unit’ = unit of measurement, element) and information (‘txt’ = data, language), Univrs focuses on the conceptual differentiation of a universal language (‘universum/universal’ = unity, entirety).

Evolved from a live context, the 14 tracks on Univrs showcase a more continuous and dense approach. Like Unitxt, the album features a collaborative work with the French vocal artist Anne-James Chaton for the track “Uni Acronym”. For this piece Chaton reads through a number of 208 three-letter acronyms (set in alphabetical order), creating an unsystematic narrative. As part of the homonymous audio-visual performance, Univrs also contains a visual component, based on the real-time manipulation of software-generated test images by audio signals. The visualization of Univrs (Uniscope Version) – an expanded screen projection setup – on a digital level combines a variety of modules, demonstrating different methods of audio analyzing. The resulting color patterns change constantly without repetition.

The Univrs (Uniscope Version) was developed with the Touchdesigner software in close cooperation with Derivative in Toronto, Canada. Univrs was followed by the third installment in the trilogy—2018’s Unieqav. Alva Noto would like to thank Anne-James Chaton for his constant inspiration, Martin L. Gore for providing a sample for the track “Uni Rec,” and Daniel Miller for his guidance and support. The album was mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk, Berlin.

Further readings:

• Review by Tiny Mix Tapes’ Carlos Romàn (2011)
• Review by Exclaim!’s Josiah Hughes (2011)

Related Products

• N-031 Unitxt Alva Noto Format: Digital, CD
• N-045 Unieqav Alva Noto Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl