Year 276 (CCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tacitus and Aemilianus (or, less frequently, year 1029 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 276 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Alva Noto is a stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes.^{[clarification needed]} Another alias he uses is Noto. He is a member of the music groups Signal (with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender aka Byetone) and Cyclo. (with Ryoji Ikeda).

Nicolai was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany. His interest in sound and its physical qualities may be inspired by his childhood obsession with bats, whom as a child he believed he could communicate with. He first studied architecture and landscape design before pursuing an interest in the theoretical properties of sound and space. Resettling in Berlin in the early 1990s, Nicolai founded the experimental music label Noton as a platform for his conceptual and experimental musical concerns. In 1996 this was to become Raster-Noton. Archiv Für Ton Und Nichtton with the collaboration of Olaf Bender.

Nicolai transforms sound by looping oscillators and tone generators. He does not use sequencers, but edits his work to give his compositions rhythmic structures. Clicks and glitches are not used as ornamental additions to the compositions but make up the essential rhythmic and harmonic elements of the work. He frequently samples electronic information transmission sounds such as fax tones, modem sounds and telephone pops and clicks are sampled and organised.^{[citation needed]}, among other overlooked sound sources.