I’d like to introduce everyone to my all-time favorite record label, Raster-Noton.  Raster-Noton is an electronic music record label based in Chemnitz, Germany.  The label was founded by Olaf Bender, Carsten Nicolai, and Frank Bretschneider in 1996.  Raster-Noton merged in 1999 from separate labels, Rastermusik and Noton.

The main focus of the label is to produce rhythmic, minimal, electronic music.  Artists such as Alva Noto, AtomTM, Kangding ray, Taylor Dupree have contributed as well as many more top names in the underground electronic scene.  The music is very unconventional.  You will hear a lot of glitching and small changes in the music, sometimes requiring good speakers to get the full spectrum.  The music is produced from the ground up using field samples or completely original synthesized sounds.  The founders are very intelligent people, some being sound engineers.  With their knowledge of the way sound is formed and created, they can warp and direct their music in any way they want.  It makes for some very interesting sounds and ear-catching rhythms and melodies.  Apart from producing music, they have a catalog for strictly art that they have created as well.  Again, the art follows a minimalist approach to things.  When playing live, there is usually a massive screen behind the artist with custom visualizations that go with every glitch in the music.  Very amazing stuff.

Being one of my favorite labels, I highly recommend you check our their website listed below and watch the youtube videos to get a feel for the music.  Like I said, it is very unconventional and may be hard to listen to at first, but stick with it and you will find an artist on R-N to fall in love with.

Raster-Noton Website

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