Cologne, Germany-based producer and mastering engineer Robert Babicz has been a constant presence in the electronic music world since the early 1990s, releasing hundreds of recordings across several styles of techno and experimental music. He embraces chance with his completely improvised live performances, yet his technical precision and drive ensure the high quality of his recorded output. Babicz experiences synesthesia, and his music is filled with intricately detailed sound design as well as vivid melodies. Throughout the '90s, he was best known for producing hard, driving acid techno as Rob Acid (among other monikers) and co-running Junkfood Records. He began releasing music under his own name around the turn of the millennium, with two albums of ambient glitch on Mille Plateaux before switching to a more accessible brand of minimal techno with recordings like 2001's Main Things, as Atlon Inc. While continuing to release music under several aliases, Babicz has largely stuck to his given name ever since, producing melodic, smoothly flowing tech-house on albums like 2010's Immortal Changes, and occasionally venturing into downtempo and progressive house, as on 2020's Utopia. Babicz was born in Poland, and moved to Germany as a child. He began producing music in 1992, and his earliest releases, under names like Colone, Rob Acid, and Department of Dance, veered from dark, hard-hitting acid to more atmospheric techno. Much of his output appeared on Junkfood Records, the label he co-founded with Michael Zosel in 1994. As Dicabor (Rob Acid in reverse), he released a self-titled ambient album as well as a live collaboration with Loveparade founder Dr. Motte, both on the Space Teddy label in 1995. Other collaborations during the decade included releases with Mijk van Dijk and Roland Casper. Experimental album MoMente was released under Babicz's own name on Mille Plateaux in 1999, with Desert following in 2000. Force Inc., Mille Plateaux's club-friendly sister label, released Main Things, the first album by Babicz's minimal techno project Atlon Inc., in 2001. Two different Rob Acid live albums were released in 2003, and the moniker continued issuing singles on labels like Treibstoff and Audiomatique, as well as splits or collaborations with artists such as Marc Romboy and Hardfloor. Aside from Rob Acid releases, Babicz has primarily remained active under his given name. Sure Sipr appeared on Punkt Music in 2004, and A Cheerful Temper, the first of many full-lengths on Systematic, arrived in 2007. Singles appeared on labels such as Kompakt imprint K2 and John Digweed's Bedrock, while the producer started his own Babiczstyle in 2010. After the release of that year's Immortal Changes and 2013's The Owl and the Butterfly, ambient full-length A Moment of Loud Silence was digitally issued by Traum Schallplatten in 2016. He collaborated with Gui Boratto on the 2019 single "Human," and full-length Utopia, with guest vocals by Alice Rose and Zera, appeared on Systematic in 2020. ~ Paul Simpson