Planets — a playlist by Robot Koch

About this playlist

I imagine this playlist like a solar system of influences and inspiration. It includes artists that I like, who inspired me, and that I collaborated with along the way. Like moons circling planets and planets circling a sun, these tracks are all interrelated in one way or another.

It’s a soothing and deep listening experience, that can be enjoyed on headphones for full immersion. It’s a perfect playlist to gaze at the stars, for a night drive, or to listen to with eyes closed.

The playlist opens with a Radiohead cover by Jon Hopkins, two artists whose music inspired me over the years. It also includes my favorite song by Four Tet, "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth", from the album Rounds which I bought on Vinyl in 2003 shortly after I started making music myself. This song has a vibe and atmosphere that really inspired me back then and it’s a timeless beauty to me.

My musical socialization has been rather eclectic, I love Black Sabbath, John Coltrane, Moondog, and Linda Perhacs, who are all appearing in this playlist with their songs that mean the most to me. They all share a deepness in their sound and an emotional expression, despite being very different musically. Another producer I adore is David Axelrod, a soul-jazz innovator from the 70s who’s been sampled a lot in Hip Hop. Or Harold Budd, who worked with Brian Eno on his album "The Pavillion of Dreams" which is one of my favorite ambient albums of all time.

I had the pleasure to see Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson live in LA before he died. He is one of my favorite film composers. His soundtrack for Arrival is out of this world.

Apart from these artists whose music inspired me I also feature some of my own tracks in this playlist, as well as artists I collaborated with or made remixes for, like Christian Löffler, Max Richter, Deru, Hugar, and Julien Marchal.

If you listen to the playlist you might understand the interconnections between the seemingly different artists on here, and how ideas and expressions in their sound infused mine, even if it’s only an echo of an idea, the texture in the sound, or the space between notes. Ultimately it’s a genuine emotional expression that binds these pieces together like planets in a solar system.

Dive into the constellation of these musical planets and experience their interconnected nature.

Headphones recommended.

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about the artist — Robot Koch

Robot Koch is an award-winning artist/composer living between Berlin and Los Angeles.

He has been steadily crafting an original sound that expertly combines a deep and cinematic atmosphere, emotional reflection, and forward-thinking production. He has remixed the likes of Max Richter and Christian Löffler, collaborated with Kristjan Järvi and the Nordic Pulse Orchestra, and played live shows at Coachella, Mutek, Sonar Festival and Boiler Room.

Koch’s visual music lends itself to picture and has been used on numerous TV shows, movie trailers, feature films, and ad campaigns over the last few years.

Apart from releasing music for his own artist project and producing for other artists which won him gold and platinum records, Robot Koch loves writing music to picture. In 2021 he composed the music for the Amazon Prime TV Show "We Children From Bahnhof Zoo" which is currently the most successful German streaming show with over 10 Million Streams in the first 2 weeks.

Koch’s scoring work is not limited to TV or Film; together with visual artist Mickael Le Goff he created the immersive AV show Sphere, which sold out in planetarium and full-dome venues from Berlin to San Francisco and won the award for “Best Immersive Experience” at the Macon Film Festival and the DTLA Film Festival.

Koch also won the German Music Composers Award in the category “Best Electronic Music Composer“.