abstract-arts is Holger Erlenwein, from a small town near Krefeld. It started in 1996 as a name for techno music and became a place for everything digital he makes: fractal images, strange attractors, flames, music, and lately small instruments for the browser. All of it free for anyone.
why then and now
The fascination began on a Commodore 64, with a Mandelbrot program drawing its Apfelmännchen line by line. Later, on the PC, came the real fractal software, and through forums and groups the step into fractal music and programming.
It was always about making things and sharing them: to spark curiosity, and to carry something beautiful out into the world. That is still the idea. abstract-arts.de is meant to be a centre again for everything that comes out of it, graphics, music, software and ideas, and a small reminder of earlier times.
stations 1996 – today
abstract-arts is founded as a label and project name for techno music. Live sets and tracks released under that name.
Fractal music: fractal data turned into notes with several fractal music programs. Dozens of midi files, from plasma and cronos to churchsingers. One fractal track is released on the generative soundscapes cd.
abstract-arts.de goes online for the first time, with a black and blue layout, fractal galleries, samples and links.
A news section, a funstuff section and free sample packs: drums, basses, gameboy loops.
The whole site is redesigned from scratch. More techno and abstract tracks as mp3, among them ice, made completely with AudioMulch. The site joins the TB-303 owners webring.
“the site is up again!” – the green layout with Courier New and the energy background.
A crop circle gallery and the positive/negative gallery.
Five years online: a gallery of strange attractors, the fractal midi files are back, new mp3s, and for the first time a photo: “if you ever wanted to know who I am, here you are”.
Photographs of power poles, a screensaver, Apophysis flames.
The last update. Then it went quiet: work and family, a move, and a turn towards music hardware.
Hardware instead of software: an Octatrack, an Akai MPC2500, a TB-303, many effects, synthesizers and drum machines.
New music on SoundCloud, under the name Hal Henrikson.
abstract-arts.de is back, rebuilt from Wayback Machine snapshots, old hard drives and a folder of forgotten web files.
in his own words from the old pages
you'll find some of my fractal pictures, some of my music in the famous .mp3 format, some royalty free .wav samples and lots of links to other sites on the webwelcome page, 2001
it now is my personal subsystem and website for my digital outputs, which are completely free for anyone.about page, 2007
tools of the trade then and now
The pictures were made with fractal and attractor programs of the time, the flames with Apophysis. Most of the old music came from AudioMulch, the midi files from fractal music generators. Today the music comes out of boxes with knobs.
then:Commodore 64FractintApophysisAudioMulchfractal music generators