At an early age Robert Henke was consumed by a want to be an engineer. Fascinated by technology and an enquiring mind, with the help of Jean Michel Jarr's 'Oxygen', he was lead to electronic music. In 1990 he moved to Berlin and began studying in the Electronic Studio for Music at the Technical University. He first started to make music, with Gerhard Behles, whilst studying Sound Engineering at the Academy For Film And Television.
Behles went on to start Ableton, where Henke later joined the team to develop the software, and help turn it into one of the most widely used digital workstations in the world today. When the pair split, Monolake became Henke's solo project. He had a number of collaborators on previous projects, including T++ who helped shape the 'Polygon_cities' album in 2004, but the last two albums have been all Henke's own work.
We turn our focus to his latest album, 'Ghosts'. The production process was a strategy based on colours and field recordings. Moving past just recording textures, he took it a stage further to begin recording percussive elements, exploring a sound designers approach.
As the title suggests, the album consists of a collection of dark, spooky and in some cases frightening sounds. Endless landscapes intertwine with jagged stabs, as the album seamlessly flows between different tempos and energy levels delivering wave after wave of sonic pleasure. But don't take my word for it. Check out the samples below...
Tracklisting
1) Ghosts
2) Toku
3) Afterglow
4) Hitting The Surface
5) Discontinuity
6) The Existence Of Time
7) Phenomenon
8) Unstable Matter
9) Lilith
10) Aligning The Daemon
11) Foreign Object
The album will be out to buy on cd, double vinyl and digitially from the 27th February. To celebrate the release of the album there will be a tour taking place in various cities around Europe and once in New York. It kicks of at Berghain in 2 weeks time, and us lucky individuals in London will get the chance to catch the show twice. Once at the legendary fabric, next month (I still have very fond memories of watching Moritz Von Oswald Trio perform their 'Vertical Assent' album in room 1, and if it's anything like that, which we're positive it will be, then it'll be one seriously inspiring and emotional evening) and then in July at the Bloc Weekender.
As a sneak preview, Henke has let slip a video test for 'The Existence Of Time', with animations from Tarik Barri. If the soundcloud album preview above didn't get you excited for the tour, then this certainly will.
The Existence of Time from Tarik Barri on Vimeo.
Tour Dates
29th Feb: Berlin - Berghain support from Shackleton (DJ Set) Peverelist (DJ Set) Tickets
1st Mar: London - fabric support from Craig Richards (DJ Set) Peverelist (DJ Set) Tickets
9th Mar: Amsterdam - 5 Days Off Tickets
17th Mar: Spain - KlubbersDay (TBC) Tickets
20th Apr: New York - Unsound Festival
4th May: Slovenia (TBC)
6th Jun: Italy - Dancity Folignio
7th Jul: London - Bloc Tickets
29th Sep: Bologinia - Robot Festival (TBC)
More information on Monolake can be found on the Monolake Website, 'Like' him on his Facebook Fan Page or follow him on Twitter. There's plenty of stuff to explore, including all his dates, a whole host of free downloads and details of all his work. We also recommend you have a read of a recent interview he did with Todd L. Burns on Resident Advisor.
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