Olaf Bender
Byetone
© photo: Olaf Bender, Chemnitz/Berlin
Year of birth, place
1968
Germany
Biography
Olaf Bender's (a.k.a. byetone) experimental work traces back to first experiments with the medium film in the 1980s. Due to these experiments, he came into contact with the east-german underground band AG Geige of which he became a permanent member in 1988. By working with this group he got into musical aspects.
After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, he was working for a music distributor. The experiences he collected there led to the idea of publishing his own music by himself. together with Frank Bretschneider. They founded the record label rastermusic in 1996. With rastermusic, they wanted to publish their own electronic music projects and those of other similar working artists. The special process of creating electronic sound should be reflected also in the graphical presentation of the label and its products. One of the earliest rastermusic productions was the project signal which Olaf Bender has been continuing together with Bretschneider and Nicolai until today. Nicolai owned the sublabel noton, which finally merged with rastermusic to raster-noton in 1999.
Beside the management of raster-noton, Olaf Bender is responsible for the graphic design and public appearance of the label. Additionally, he performs solo under the pseudonym byetone.
Bender creates his music digitally. He assembles sine tones to complex sound fabrics. Digital clicks and effect plug-ins are essential to create the rhythms. Bender further uses visuals in the sense of animated light; abstract animations support the abstract pieces of music, so that the rhythm of the music is transformed into a graphic equivalent.
(2016)
After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, he was working for a music distributor. The experiences he collected there led to the idea of publishing his own music by himself. together with Frank Bretschneider. They founded the record label rastermusic in 1996. With rastermusic, they wanted to publish their own electronic music projects and those of other similar working artists. The special process of creating electronic sound should be reflected also in the graphical presentation of the label and its products. One of the earliest rastermusic productions was the project signal which Olaf Bender has been continuing together with Bretschneider and Nicolai until today. Nicolai owned the sublabel noton, which finally merged with rastermusic to raster-noton in 1999.
Beside the management of raster-noton, Olaf Bender is responsible for the graphic design and public appearance of the label. Additionally, he performs solo under the pseudonym byetone.
Bender creates his music digitally. He assembles sine tones to complex sound fabrics. Digital clicks and effect plug-ins are essential to create the rhythms. Bender further uses visuals in the sense of animated light; abstract animations support the abstract pieces of music, so that the rhythm of the music is transformed into a graphic equivalent.
(2016)