For many musicians, web-posted MP3s are a means by which to send a virtual postcard to fans, bringing them up to date on where the individual’s artistic activities are headed. For Monolake (aka Robert Henke), however, free MP3s are often more like missives from the past.
As part of his occasional and ongoing free-MP3 service at monolake.de, Monolake recently posted a 20-minute-long minimal-techno track that he says dates from two years back, and that he only came upon recently while looking through his hard drive for something else entirely.
The piece, titled “Decay,” for which he does his best to limit enthusiasm (he essentially says it would have been fresh had he made it a decade prior), is a bouncy, percussive-dolloped bit of minimal techno, with muted cymbals and a hazy surface of sonic cloud cover. “Enjoy it as nice background,” writes Henke. “I tested it for washing dishes, sorting invoices and watering flowers. It worked quite well.”
Henke posts these free tracks with certain rules, including an admonition against linking directly to the MP3 file, so just proceed to monolake.de/downloads. This one should be up for the full month of November.