Robert Henke

Robert Henke, born 1969 in Munich, is a composer, sound designer, software developer, installation artist and multimedia performer. His art is about carefully shaped details behind the surface and gradual changes of repeating structures in different time scales. Many of his works are defined as potentially endless and slowly evolving states, thus inviting the audience to immerse themselves completely for a freely defined amount of time.

His sonic explorations are rooted in academic sound research as well as in club culture. With his collaborative musical project Monolake he became part of the legendary Chain Reaction record label in the early 1990's, and shaped what later became "the sound of Berlin techno music".

Locating himself more on the periphery of the dance music culture, he also started exploring interactive sound installations, and audiovisual performances beyond the dancefloor. For Henke, the artistic result that is evident in his works and the creation of the instruments and tools to achieve these results are two sides of the same artistic process. Since the founding of the company in 1999, he is one of the main developers of the Ableton Live software, which became the current standard for electronic music production and performance. He is living in Berlin and teaches as professor for sound design and computer music performance at the University of Arts in Berlin.

Henke's strong interest in the interaction between a given physical space and the imaginary space defended in his art can be best experienced in one of his multiple loudspeaker surround concerts. His performances and installations have been shown at the Tate Modern in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, MUDAM in Luxembourg, PS1 in New York, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and others. His album "Layering Buddha" (Imbalance Computer Music, 2006) received an honorary mention at the Prix Ars Electronica in 2007.