During the day I went to the Elektronische Studio der Technischen Universitat Berlin and did listen to academic computer music. At night I did dance to techno in one of the illegal clubs somewhere in a squatted house. I tried to bring both sides together, the sounddesign and the sophistication with the beat.

When Chain Reaction started there was a spirit of community and everyone who was involved was very happy with the situation. It was a platform for new ideas and new artists and we all felt comfortable there. It was a homebase and a perfect starting point for people like us.

The mystery comes due to the non-marketing marketing of the label. Looking at it from the inside reveals a pretty normal small business, driven by a bunch of people sharing similar ideas. We did all like the idea of understatement at this time. It felt right to us to behave different from the normal music industry. What made CR / BC unique was also the connection between a record store, a label, a vinyl cutting room and a mastering studio. I worked at that mastering studio, Dubplates and Mastering, for a few years and I were cutting all older Monolake records by myself. This situation definitely felt special and it was exciting and part of the myth.

At some point we (Monolake) wanted to explore musical ideas which seemed not to fit to the Chain Reaction context. Since I was impressed by how Mark and Moritz managed to start Basic Channel, I decided to do the same thing with Imbalance Computer Music and thats it. There was no dramatic split or something like this.

Probably not in terms of promotion and probably also not in absolute sales. But I have the impression that monolake is a trademark now by itself and there is no need to associate it with anything else. The advantage is that I do not have neither to justify my muscial decisions nor my business ones and I have the freedom to do what ever I think makes sense to me. I am glad that I did achieve everything by myself and not because of the fact that someone who buys all Warp stuff will also by the monolake CD if it comes out on Warp...

I see Imbalance Computer Music as a pretty imaginary construction, not as a real label. In a few years there will be no CDs anymore and the whole distribution and label business will change drastically. I can adapt to what ever seems appropriate since the layer between artist and customer is extremely thin which is not the normal situation if you start getting a bit more successful. I like the fact that my person is highly visible behind my work. Even the website is far away from looking like a commercial label presentation. I also have no intention to turn [ml/i] into a real label by signing other artists. On the other side I have the freedom to do so once I think it makes sense.

Currently monolake is pretty much me alone and I just started getting used to this. But I am allways open to new things and it is not so unlikely that monolake will be getting a bigger project with more people involved. The atlantic waves project needs some update and we are both willing to perform it again some day. But since we are both quite full with other work it is difficult to find a time slot to continue working on it.

Due to the influence of my live performances the sound got more driven by beats and I still like to continue moving forward into this direction. I think the true challenge for a composer these days is not finding new exciting sounds but really work on the material. Sound itself is boring since everyone can do everything with his laptop. The challenge is the music and I see still lots of open questions and unexplored territories within the Monolake universe. My main goal is creating music which is simple and complex at the same time.

No, my portable DAT recorder broke four years ago and I did not do any field recordings since then. I also see no need for it anymore. I would rather use synthesis to create something close to what I would do with a field recording but even better since less obvious...

I just like Asia. I like the challenge to meet people from a very different culture and I like the fact that these people have a different perception of music. It is very inspiring. In Japan people highly respect art and they try to listen and to understand. In Berlin the audience wants to be entertained and this idea of entertainment is to provide something they know and they feel familliar with. If you play a ten minute piece with no beat in a club in Berlin the crowd starts getting very upset and agressive. If you do the same thing in Tokyo the audience gets quiet and opens up to what is coming. If you then bring in some beat they go crazy. In Berlin the notion is: oh, he finally managed to solve his problem. It can be really annoying from time to time.

Not particulary. It is just my personal reflection of what I have been listening to since I am on this planet.

I try to get hold of every kind of electronic music just to be up to date and I like to listen to an assorted selection of 20th century composers including Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldmann... I found a good way to expose myself to new music. If I read a good review of a record I buy it and instead of listening to it I import it directly into my iPod. The iPod is always on random play. If I find a piece very annoying I look it up and delete it. If I find something I really like I also look at the display and very likely start listening to the whole album or to other music by the same artist. I discovered David Tudor’s fascinating work Rain Forest while walking down the streets of Belgrade last week. It was raining and the sound matched perfect with the city and my emotions.

Ask again in 50 years.