Monolake

OSC09 day 1 – backstage chat with Robert Henke (Monolake), The Field (Axel Willner) and Sick Girls!

Day 2 and 3 features artists such as Todd Terje, The Juan Maclean, Scuba, Andreas Tilliande, Style Of Eye, Adrian Lux, Heartsrevolution, Bronnt Industries Kapital and many more.

OSC09 13TH-15TH OF AUGUST 2009.

This video captures one performance of Atom – which features a matrix of 64 gas balloons, lights, and sound by Christopher Bauder & Robert Henke (aka Monolake).

A room is filled with deep, evolving noises from a four-channel sound system. An eight-by-eight array of white, self-illuminated spheres floats in space like the atoms of a complex molecule.

Through variable positioning and illumination of each atom, a dynamic display sculpture comes into being, composed of physical objects, patterns of light, and synchronous rhythmic and textural sonic events. Change, sound, and movement converge into a larger form.

The height of the helium balloons is adjusted with a computer-controlled cable, whilst the internal illumination is accomplished using dimmable super-bright LEDs, creating a pixel in a warped 8×8 spatial matrix.

The sonic events, the patterns of light, and the movement of the balloons are manipulated in real time as a 45-60 minute-long performance.

Read more…

Robert Henke, aka Monolake, is offering a unreleased track at his site, Decay, as a free download from his site.

This track is from June 2006. I found it on a backup drive whilst searching for something else.

When I made it, I soon felt something is missing, it sounded old and nostalgic too me, a dead end, a film watched way too often. Now, i feel even more distant to it.

During the last two years my musical interest moved away from anything that could be labeled ‘minimal techno’, a genre that became totally empty, uninspired and formalized. A straight bassdrum beat does not make me dance anymore.

Enjoy it as nice background. I tested it for washing dishes, sorting invoices and watering flowers. It worked quite well.

via the very nice disquiet ambient electronica blog.

This video, via Tom Cosm, is of Robert Henke, aka Monolake, giving a workshop in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Topics covered include:

• Ableton Live
• Monodeck 2 in depth
• Ableton / Cycling 74 Partnership
• Surround Sound in Ableton
• Explanation of the Monolake Live Setup

If you’ve seen images of Monolake performing, you may have wondered about the unique instrument he uses, the Monodeck II:

In this video, Monolake jams with the Monodeck II:

Monolake, aka Robert Henke, uses a custom MIDI controller, along with Max, to control Ableton Live. He calls the Monodeck II “an industrial grade prototype.”

Here’s Henke’s story of the history of the custom electronic music controller:

“I started with first sketches for Monodeck II in summer 2005. The hardware was finished one year later, the development of a new Monolake live show took another six month. The first concert with Monodeck II was a very successful show in Vilnius / Lithuania. Monodeck II allows me to perform concerts with a very high degree of freedom and room for improvisation without even looking at the computer screen. Monodeck II controls a mixer, a battery of effects units, a large number of software instruments and an arbitrary number of MIDI loops hosted in Ableton Live. At any time of the performance I can access any part of it, play a bassline from one track together with an altered version of a drumgroove from another one, leaving interesting momentary states with tiny alteraltions in sound for a longer period of time or jump back and forth between different parts to create breaks of all sorts, while muticolor LEDs provide constant optical feedback and facillitate navigation thru my set.”

Photo: TheBeej, Monolake