Bleep

Alva Noto’s HYbr:ID series sits at the intersections between science, art, and culture, having coalesced these themes since 2021 through intricate graphic scores, and spatial albums commissioned for partner in crime Richard Siegal’s dance scores. HYbr:ID III is the most captivating instalment yet, taking inspiration from Japanese Noh theatre to create ultra-physical soundscapes that crackle like trickling grains, shifting pebbles, and heavy rain on glass.

HYbr:ID III seems to transcend the space of an album altogether. Its long reverbs, scintillating with high frequencies or sinking in the lows, travel deep into infinite audio expanses, populated by collaged clips of swerving noise and serene notes that trail into the ambience. Alongside an exhibition for MACRO Museum in Rome spanning the entire series, the album soundtracks Siegal’s 2023 BALLET OF (DIS)OBEDIENCE production, in which the shimmering string-like synths of ‘Noh Talk’ form slow moving arabesques in the background, while rays of starlight morph into metallic whistles and eroded digital sighs, reminiscent of the long wavering notes that characterise vocals in Noh theatre.

‘Sync Dark’ breaks through the stillness with tactile bursts of split second percussion, and howling winds harnessed into inky lasers. Alva Noto’s signature brand of minimal techno, glitches and microbeats abound, is completely submersed here, dispersing energy through coursing distortion and resonant liquid synth strums on ‘Noh Human’, and elsewhere brewing tension with fiery bass and skittering rhythms. Sputtering sprays rise into a spectral sea of soft noise on ‘Collective Open’, spurred on by cinematic chords, while the duo of ‘Obsessive Behaviour’ tracks tear away at the sonic turbulence, drilling electronics into minuscule smithereens in the ‘Day’, and cycling through rebounding glass thunks and buzzing, sparking frayed wires in the static of ‘Night’.

Alva Noto creates morphing, electrifying compositions through subtlety and textural worldbuilding on HYbr:ID III.