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Monolake

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Monolake is a German electronic music project, founded in Berlin in 1995. It began as a duo of Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke. In 1999 Behles, Henke and Bernd Roggendorf founded the software company Ableton, and Behles turned his attention to that. In 2004 Torsten Pröfrock joined the project. Today Monolake is continued by Henke alone. The name comes from Mono Lake, a lake east of the Sierra Nevada in California.

Music and breakthrough

The music is minimal techno with a dub influence. In this way Monolake helped to shape the sound of the Berlin label Chain Reaction. Later the work appeared on its own label, [ml/i]. The records have followed one another since Hongkong in 1997, including Interstate, Cinemascope, Gravity, Momentum, Polygon_Cities, Silence and Ghosts. Henke and Pröfrock also make solo work, Pröfrock under the names T++ and Various Artists.

Influence

Henke is also a software developer. He designed software and equipment for live performance, including Atlantic Waves, which allows producers in different countries to play at the same time. In 2003 he made the Monodeck, a MIDI controller that lets you edit sounds during a performance without looking at the screen. In this way Monolake became important for the way electronic music is made live, and not only for the records themselves.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Hongkong or Cinemascope and notice how little changes in the rhythm, and how small shifts in sound and echo still create tension.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: Artists