Archive 001
Wächtersbach / Frankfurt

Roboter
werke

Est.
1970s

Electronic music, self-built machines, film, 4D and experimental media since the 1970s.

Music, images
and machines.

Roboterwerke grew from the collaboration of three friends from Wächtersbach: Franz Aumüller, Dieter Kolb and Franz Knüttel.

Beginning in the 1970s, their different disciplines became part of one experimental practice: composition and performance, graphic design and storytelling, electronics, instrument building, recording, film and moving image.

Franz Aumüller developed visual concepts, stories, lyrics and production. Dieter Kolb formed the musical core as composer, arranger, keyboard player and vocalist. Franz Knüttel combined his role as drummer with electronics and engineering, developing synthesizers and the programmable rhythm technology that became known as Roboterwerke.

From this environment emerged Supersempfft, Roboterwerke, 4D and a series of machines, films and experiments whose history extends far beyond a conventional band biography.

FA
Franz Aumüller
Concept / Graphics / Lyrics / Production
DK
Dieter Kolb
Composition / Keyboards / Voice / Arrangement
FK
Franz Knüttel
Electronics / Drums / Instrument Development

The studio became
an instrument.

Records, circuits, drawings, stories, synthesizers and films were not separate disciplines. They evolved together.

RW–01
Roboterwerke System
Rhythm Machine / Synthesizers / Electronics
RW–02
Supersempfft
Music / Storytelling / Graphics / Film
RW–03
Roboterwerke — Futurist
Electronic Music / 1981
RW–04
4D
Music / Film / New Media / 1982–83
RW–05
Bird Mountain Magic
Later Instrument System / Franz Knüttel

Machines were not tools after the idea. They were part of the idea.

A continuing
archive.

The history of Roboterwerke is not a straight timeline. It is a network of people, recordings, circuits, instruments, films and unfinished ideas.

1972

Wächtersbach

Franz Aumüller, Dieter Kolb and Franz Knüttel begin developing a shared creative environment combining music, graphics and electronics. Early experiments involve instruments, tape machines and self-built technology.

1970s

The Roboterwerke machines

Franz Knüttel develops synthesizers and a programmable electronic percussion system. Technology increasingly becomes part of the composition itself rather than simply a means of recording it.

1979

Supersempfft — Roboterwerke

The first Supersempfft album is released by CBS. Its title, Roboterwerke, also refers to the electronic rhythm machine developed by Franz Knüttel and used as part of the group's musical language.

1981

Metaluna

Supersempfft expands its musical and visual universe with Metaluna, released through the independent Wunderwerke environment.

1981

Roboterwerke — Futurist

Futurist appears under the name Roboterwerke, continuing the electronic experiments in a more direct, machine-driven form.

1982

Cosmotropics

Supersempfft records music for an ambitious animated film project. The film remains unfinished and only a fragment survives, while the completed soundtrack remains unreleased for decades.

1982–83

4D

The project moves into a new phase with 4D. Recordings for Auf der Suche nach der vierten Dimension are produced at Wunderwerke in Wächtersbach, combining electronic music with a broader visual and media concept.

2016

The 4D recordings return

Auf der Suche nach der vierten Dimension is released for the first time, 33 years after the original 1982–83 recording sessions.

2020

Cosmotropics released

The previously unreleased soundtrack to the 1982 Cosmotropics film project is finally published, bringing another part of the Supersempfft archive back into circulation.

2023–24

Rediscovery

Bureau B reissues Metaluna in 2023 and Roboterwerke in 2024, introducing the work to another generation of listeners.

2024

Superbooth Berlin

Original machines and instruments return to a public context at Superbooth Berlin. Florian Aumüller, together with collaborators, begins a new phase of restoration, performance and documentation around the Roboterwerke archive.

NOW

The archive continues

Recordings, films, photographs, schematics, machines and personal histories are being collected and reconstructed as parts of one interconnected archive.

Documents,
sounds & objects.

The Roboterwerke archive is currently being assembled from recordings, photographs, films, machines, documents and private collections.

A–01
Audio Recordings
Masters / Tapes / Releases
A–02
Film & Video
Film / Video / Documentation
A–03
Photography
Studio / People / Machines
A–04
Technical Documents
Schematics / Drawings / Notes
A–05
Machines & Objects
Hardware / Prototypes / Instruments

Archive
contact.

Roboterwerke

Wächtersbach / Frankfurt am Main
Germany

aumuller(at)live.com