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Robert Henke is widely acknowledged as one of electronic music’s finest mastercraftsmen, a rare talent who can combine the most advanced sound design and production theory with instinctive musical talent like few others. His early work for Berlin institution Chain Reaction heralded an atmospheric, highly considered take on the city’s dub-techno sound in the mid-90s, but Monolake soon broke out of the constraints of four-four techno, with subsequent releases working echoes of drum n bass, ambient, and unclassifiable avant-garde studio experiments into an impossibly advanced-sounding whole. His live show at Bloc 2012, from the ‘Ghosts in Surround’ tour will be presented in full surround sound, with Henke placed at the centre of the arena among his vast live hardware set-up, allowing this most lauded of electronic composers to present his music in truly mind-blowing sonic clarity.
The appearance is a welcome return for Henke who last performed at Bloc 2008, also in full surround sound and in the middle of the audience. In a recent published essay, he recalls the experience:
“In spring 2008 I was invited to play at the Bloc in the UK. I arrived at the venue, a big dancefloor, a big stage, four impressive stacks of Funktion One speakers, and a FOH mixer set up at the back of the dancefloor, which happend to be still quite central in that big room. When I arrived an other artist was performing. The sound on the dancefloor was quite good. I walked backstage, entered the stage to set up my equipment and was totally frustrated by the fact that the sound on stage had absolutely nothing to do with the experience down on the dancefloor. I decided that I would want to play next to the FOH mixer and not on stage. The organizers looked at me with a funny expression; a headliner who wants to play off stage at a 2500 people event? Yes. I played where I could actually play with the PA, where I could shape every detail, every wave of bass, every single snare sound in a way which created the most impact on the dancefloor. And, I was less than one meter away from the people, on their level. It was one of the best Monolake sets I ever did. We all had a great time.”
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