Olaf Bender's experimental work with film material started during school time: the casual finding of a complete 16mm movie equipment was the “initiation”, starting his intensive dealing with the medium of film. After the falldown of the Berlin wall, he was working for a music distributor and decided to publish his own musical projects. He founded the Rastermusic record label in 1996, with Frank Bretschneider, and soon combined forces with Carsten Nicolai forming Raster-Noton, one of the most succesfull and accomplished labels of the electronic scene of today, based in Chemnitz, Germany.
Bender creates his music digitally, assembling sine tones to complex sound fabrics. Digital clicks and effect plug-ins are essential; they create the rhythms in a timely relation and a track is born - an artificial world without any physical effort. He presents his music with an immense deal of technology, also using visuals, mostly in the sense of animated light. Abstract animations support the abstract pieces of music, and the rhythm of music is transformed into its graphic equivalent. By using the computer, Bender controls the animations in real-time, and has done so at numerous high-end events around the globe, both in clubs and museums/galleries, also visiting many relevant festivals.
