Byetone
(AV live)

Olaf Bender AKA Byetone is an important figure in the history of German electronic avantgarde of the last four decades. Bender has been part of the groups Produkt and Signal, and produces solo under the moniker Byetone, although it was not until 2008 that he released his first full length record. His minimalist, rhythm-based music bristles with a rock attitude without need of much processing and decoration; archaic and rebellious music, full of energy. Byetone has also produced remixes for artists like Modeselektor and VCMG (Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore).

A member of 80’s East-German experimental unit AG Geige, where he met Frank Bretschneider, after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, Bender worked in music distribution. Together with Bretschneider, he founded the record label Rastermusic in 1996, later merging with Carsten Nicolai’s sublabel Noton to form Raster-Noton in 1999. Bender not only managed the label, but was also responsible for the distinctive cover designs. In May 2017 Raster-Noton dissolved, with Bender running the newly formed ›Raster‹ label, handling the Raster-Noton back catalog, and also realising installations like ‘Raster. Labor’, which premiered during CTM Festival in January 2019.

Links: Soundcloud, Instagram