INTERVIEW WITH ROBOT KOCH

Robot Koch: Otherwhere | Antakly Projects
Robot Koch Robot Koch
Antakly Projects  ·  Electronic Music  ·  Berlin  ·  Los Angeles
Robot Koch

Otherwhere  ·  Sphere  ·  The Unknown

Producer, composer, visual artist. Award-winning creator of the Sphere full-dome experience. Coachella, Sonar, Mutek, Boiler Room. A pen-pal introduction from Berlin that had to happen.

Berlin  ·  Los Angeles Neue Meister  ·  Trees and Cyborgs Sphere  ·  Full Dome Live Show
As a film lover, cinematic scores are the kind of music that blows Leila away. A dear pen-pal friend in Berlin made this conversation happen. Thank you.

Robot Koch is an award-winning artist, producer, and composer from Berlin, now living in Los Angeles. His electronic music has been described as emotional, atmospheric, and cinematic, inspired by a lifelong love for science fiction. Over the last decade he has built a body of work that sits at the intersection of sound design, orchestral composition, and immersive visual art.

His collaborations have ranged from working with the Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin on the Neue Meister label project Otherwhere, developed alongside Australian violinist and composer Savannah Jo Lack, to producing for both indie and major artists worldwide, accumulating gold and platinum records along the way. He won the German Music Composers Award 2014 in the category Best Composer Electronic Music, and runs his own label Trees and Cyborgs, founded in 2016.

His most ambitious project remains Sphere: a full-dome live show with 3D surround sound and 360 visuals, created with visual artist Mickael Le Goff, which sold out planetariums and festivals worldwide from Berlin to San Francisco to Moscow, winning Best Immersive Experience at the Macon Film Festival and Best Dome Visuals at the DTLA Film Festival. He has appeared at Coachella, Sonar, Mutek, and played Boiler Room multiple times.

"I am fascinated by the unknown. It is something that excites me rather than scares me."
Robot Koch
The conversation
01

Was there a specific moment where you thought: this is what I want to do?

"I was 12 years old, sitting in front of the TV watching MTV. I grew up pre-internet so MTV was the window to the world in provincial West Germany. This video for the song Epic came on by the band Faith No More. It blew my mind, visually and sonically. By the time the piano exploded in the video I knew I wanted to make music."

02

Your greatest inspirations and influences?

I draw inspiration from all sorts of genres and musical styles. I am also influenced by books, movies, and the weather. I would say nature is my biggest inspiration.

I am very interested in the evolution of life in general, and I think in music it is also very interesting to cross-pollinate between genres. In fact, I think we are in a post-genre time already. Drawing inspiration from something rather old like orchestral music and fusing it with something more futuristic creates something I find exciting.

But nothing is more conducive to my creative process than withdrawing into nature. It is the single most important thing for inspiration.

03

Most interesting response to your work?

People get really emotional. Some people said it was the most impressive thing they have ever seen in terms of live show and AV experiences. Others told me they were flying. Others crying. It does not leave you cold. The experience plays with the whole nervous system and is quite powerful.

04

What would be a dream project?

Scoring a sci-fi film like Arrival, Under the Skin, Annihilation, or Ex Machina. These are all recent, intelligent, and atmospheric sci-fi films which I really loved, and I can imagine contributing a great soundtrack to a film in that vein.

05

Anything else you would like to share?

Please eat less meat and consider the environment as something you are part of, rather than something separate from you that you can exploit. Thank you.

Watch Light Through A Canvas  ·  Robot Koch  ·  Otherwhere

Films he would love to score

Intelligent, atmospheric, recent science fiction
Arrival Under the Skin Annihilation Ex Machina
Update  ·  2025

In 2025, speaking to The Sonic Atelier, Robot Koch reflected on his relationship with technology and creative process:

"I use technology as a tool to get my ideas out. I do not obsess over it. I am not the type of person who gets fascinated by what a particular machine can do in itself. For me, the question is always: how does it serve my creative process? If a tool shortens the distance between my idea and the moment I can turn it into something tangible, then it is great. If, on the contrary, it makes the process longer because I need to spend too much time figuring it out, it turns me off. So I am not obsessed with technology for its own sake: if it does not serve me, I am not interested."

He continues to work on new immersive experiences, installations, and films with Mickael Le Goff, and as a producer and writer for artists worldwide. Full archive at robotsdontsleep.com.

"If a tool shortens the distance between my idea and the moment I can turn it into something tangible, then it is great."
Robot Koch  ·  2025
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Leila Antakly
Photos by Jamie Azar

Photos by Jamie Azar

Leila Antakly

Leila Antakly is the founder and editor of Antakly Projects, the independent cultural platform she launched in New York in 2003 as Ninu Nina. Syrian and Colombian, she began her career at Vogue Italia and has spent more than twenty years in conversation with artists, musicians, designers, photographers, and inspiring thinkers around the world.

https://www.ninunina.com/
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