Byetone (DE)

Byetone is the guise of Olaf Bender, founder of the original Rastermusic label of the mid-90’s Berlin proto-laptop avant-garde and co-owner of its evolution Raster-Noton. 

As Byetone, Bender explores the scarcity of microscopic tones and sub-tonal bass, manipulating these extreme highs and lows of sound to build a framework often recognizable from dub, techno, and or hip-hop. 

Not as prolific as his fellow label owners Carsten Nicolai and Frank Bretschneider, though no less talented, Bender has also released music under the Lumen alias, as well as a series of projects as Signal, the trio that consists of all three Raster-Noton owners. 

In 2008, he released Death of a Typographer, an album that pushed his interest in extreme highs and lows into a more industrial-rock mould, hinting that after more than a decade in music, Bender is increasingly attracted to pushing the barriers of his art form in new directions.