Monolake — Gobi. Brief story behind the record

Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles recorded the rustling ambient Gobi live in 1999 on a dozen different pieces of hardware in one take. But the core is an extremely slowed down and granulated synthesis, which in the listener’s imagination is replaced by traces of bugs, snakes, and scorpions.

Robert Henke explained, “The material for Gobi is based on extremely slowed down and granulated source material, mainly loops made from the 1997 Hongkong album. The original recording is more than two hours long. The most difficult decision was finding the right duration and mix of excerpts from that recording. In 1999 we ended up with a 36 minute edit. When listening to the original session tape again in April 2020, I decided to make a new and longer edit, since there is so much beauty in the material.” This is night music.