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
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Silence
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Nov 24, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ghosts
Progressive Rock - Released by imbalance computer music on Feb 27, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cinemascope
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Oct 23, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gravity
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Jan 14, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hongkong Remastered
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on Jun 2, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Polygon_Cities
Techno - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Jun 17, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Momentum
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Oct 17, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gobi (The Long Edit 2020)
Ambient - Released by Imbalance on May 8, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alaska Melting
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Jul 14, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Archaeopteryx
Electronic - Released by imbalance computer music on Nov 6, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Interstate
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Feb 10, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VLSI (VLSI Version)
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Oct 7, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
G M O
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Jun 10, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
X I E
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Dec 22, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gobi
Electronic - Released by monolake - imbalance computer music [ml - i] on Aug 13, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Icarus Alto
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Mar 30, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
D E C
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Aug 7, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dolores / Vt-100
Techno - Released by 50 Weapons on Nov 20, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
C G
Techno - Released by imbalance computer music on Jan 29, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo