Monolake
Monolake were among the most acclaimed and enduring artists to arise from the Berlin-based Basic Channel/Chain Reaction label group, run by Moritz "Maurizio" von Oswald and home to such champions of minimalist dub-techno austerity as Vainqueur, Substance, and Porter Ricks. Monolake initially consisted of Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles, but Behles departed during the early 2000s to run Ableton, the music software company that both producers established in 1999. For a stretch, Henke was Monolake's lone member, but in 2004 he was joined by Torsten Pröfrock, who had previously recorded for Chain Reaction as Various Artists and Resilent. No matter the membership, Monolake's output always sat at the intersection between abstract computer music and the more dance-derived techno redux of their early Chain Reaction labelmates.
Behles studied formally at Utrecht's Institute of Sonology (a noted fount of electronic experimentation formed in the late '60s by Stan Tempelaars and Gottfried Michael Koenig). Behles and Henke met at Berlin's Technical University, where Behles taught and Henke was studying sound engineering for film. Monolake formed somewhat by accident, when a first round of collaborative improvising in the studio led to a handful of tracks from which their first single, "Cyan," was soon pressed. A number of follow-up releases appeared in 1995 and 1996, with the best of these eventually joining new material on the 1997 CD release Hongkong, an important release both for Chain Reaction (it's widely considered the label's finest) and Monolake (whose previously vinyl-only 12" releases reached a somewhat small, specialist audience).
Beginning with 1999's "Fragile" 12", almost every Monolake release was issued through Henke's Imbalance Computer Music label. If not as groundbreaking as the earlier releases, the albums Interstate (1999), Cinemascope (2001), Gravity (2001), Momentum (2003), Polygon Cities (2005), and Silence (2009) were uniformly excellent -- brisk, vibrant, and steely home-listening techno at its best, rich with details. Behles' output remained consistent well into the 2010s with full-lengths such as Ghosts (2012) and VLSI (2016), as well as a considerably higher quantity of 12" releases. In addition to his prolific release schedule throughout these years (he also issued several solo-in-name titles), Henke remained a software developer at Ableton and was also a mastering engineer at Berlin's revered Dubplates & Mastering facility.
© Sean Cooper & Andy Kellman /TiVo
Similar artists
Discography
15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
-
Silence
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on 24/11/2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Studio
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on 6/09/2024
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Cinemascope
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 23/10/2001
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Ghosts
Progressive Rock - Released by imbalance computer music on 27/02/2012
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Archaeopteryx
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on 6/11/2020
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Momentum
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 17/10/2003
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Hongkong Remastered
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on 2/06/2008
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Polygon_Cities
Techno - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 17/06/2005
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Interstate
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 10/02/1999
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Gravity
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 14/01/2001
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Gobi (The Long Edit 2020)
Ambient - Released by Imbalance on 8/05/2020
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Global Transport
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on 30/07/2024
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Gobi
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on 13/08/1999
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Eclipse
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on 20/08/2024
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -