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Robert Henke

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

Robert Henke was born in 1969 in Munich and lives in Berlin. He is a German artist who works with computers: he makes music, installations with image and light, and live performances. His background lies in technology. He builds his own instruments and algorithms and finds technical objects beautiful. His material consists of generated sound and image, field recordings, photographs and light. It is processed with mathematical rules, interaction and controlled chance. In recent years he has also worked with powerful lasers.

Music and breakthrough

Together with Gerhard Behles he created the music software Ableton Live, a program that has been used in many studios and on many stages. In 1995 he started the project Monolake with Behles, under which he makes electronic music. Albums such as Hongkong (1997), Interstate (1998), Gravity (2000) and Cinemascope (2001) belong to it. Under his own name there appeared, among others, Piercing Music in 1994, Floating.Point in 1997, Signal to Noise in 2004 and Layering Buddha in 2006. In 2024 he composed the soundtrack for the Netflix series CROOKS.

Influence

Henke also teaches and gives lectures on sound and computers, including at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and at Stanford. His installations have been shown at, among other places, Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou. In this way he combines pop, technology and visual art.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track by Monolake and notice the sounds: is the music built from rhythm, noise or repetition? Try to hear what in the track seems to be a machine at work.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

Categories: Artists