⏩ We explore the intersection between music, technology and audiovisual art with Robert Henke, who has just released his album “STUDIO” with his project Monolake.

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🎚️ Signal Flow =⏩⫸
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█ #ONTHISROUTE: ROBERT HENKE. In this interview, Henke unveils part of his process for NOISE is the Message.

👉 Sound Technology

«NOISE it’s a Silence very loud…»

—| ROBERT HENKE

🖖🏽 ROBERT HENKE in interview for El RUIDO es el Mensaje

The name behind MONOLAKE received us in turns for this interview. In February 2024, we made contact with him, but due to an oversight on both sides, the interview was put on standby.

Resuming communication months later, we coordinated a time and got ready to chat. The interview was divided into two parts, at the interviewee’s request, as his commitments prevented him from continuing with our conversation process.

At some point during the talk, the idea of sharing the new album arose, as well as the interest in how the construction process of this project and the future of the interview manifested.

Between a politely dedicated and informal tone, the conversation relaxed, and we all enjoyed a discussion with points that are usually debated off the cuff in some easily forgettable place. We insisted that this table is the space to scratch the itch and propose a way out through another door, or if necessary, through a window. And if neither exists, well, we’ll draw it and build it with a saw.

🎧 MONOLAKE | STUDIO

On September 6, 2024, Robert Henke released his album “STUDIO” under his Monolake project. This 10-track work combines electronic beats, glitches, experimental sounds, and archival material, exploring the boundaries between technology and artistic expression. Produced between Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 in Berlin, “STUDIO” evokes an introspective experience, where Henke manipulates old devices, cryptic codes, and obsolete storage media. Henke’s mastery in creating soundscapes is reflected in every detail of the album, which was mastered by Mike Grinser and features collaborative visual artwork by Queenie F. Charles.

🐚 Thank you, ROBERT, for the enjoyable conversation, the cleared doubts, and the funny moments.

💻 About our PROCESS

As described in the question Henke asks, the process we usually employ in composing these interviews or conversations, from raw material to El RUIDO es el Mensaje, is the same one we use in gastronomy when we want food to take on the flavor of a desired seasoning.

That is why we archive the derived audio and let it rest, usually for a month, before resuming the conversation like the first meeting.

On this occasion, we made the first edit in Ableton Live and generated a stereo track. We surgically edited it in Ocenaudio for Windows 10, a simple, lightweight audio editor with incredible features, which performs so well that it has nothing to envy to other paid and proprietary software. Ocenaudio follows the same logic as Reaper, is 100% free to use, and if you like it, you can pay a very affordable license to support its development.

After editing, we usually go from 80 minutes of raw audio to about 50 minutes of clean sound. Then we proceed to the assembly, and there, many times, chance—like in a card game—makes the deck flow arbitrarily. Having said that, the sounds settle themselves, find their form, and merge to fit into it.

The edit turned out to be two hours long. After years, there’s a new NOISE with a two-hour duration. The occasion warranted it: Henke’s new album, the surprise of seeing his face when Gerardo told him he didn’t know he was one of the developers of (Ableton) Live, and the shared laughs in the dilemma of whether to comply with the exploitative policies of streaming platforms or look the other way, bite one’s lip, feign ignorance, and move on.

📣 Thus, we release a new NOISE of the 2024 cycle.
📝 Interview conducted by Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez 🇨🇱 and Franco Falistoco 🇦🇷 between July and August 2024.