Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol.2

Two years after opening the Xerrox series, Carsten Nicolai returned in 2009 with Xerrox Vol. 2, released on his own Raster-Noton label and pushing the project's central idea, sound built entirely from degraded, endlessly copied source material, into even more emotionally direct territory. Where his catalog under the Alva Noto name had built a reputation on pristine, almost clinical sound design, this second volume leans into something warmer and more human.

The eleven pieces here draw on a striking set of source material, including recordings from Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley, film composer Michael Nyman, and a live excerpt from Nicolai's 2004 Insen tour with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Run through Nicolai's process of repeated copying and reconstruction, those fragments lose all trace of their origin and re-emerge as something else entirely, drifting between heart-warming elegy and widescreen, almost sci-fi expanses that feel like they were recorded somewhere outside the solar system. It's some of the most emotionally direct work in Nicolai's catalog, trading the tight conceptualism of his earlier records for scope and grandeur.

Xerrox Vol. 2 deepened the ambition of a series that would eventually stretch to five volumes over nearly two decades, and it remains a high point for anyone drawn to the more cinematic, expansive side of Raster-Noton's output.

This double LP pressing comes in a gatefold sleeve, giving the album's long-form, slow-building pieces the kind of physical presence they're built for. Essential listening for fans of the Xerrox series or anyone exploring the outer edges of German electronic music.