Bender (1968) was born in Chemnitz and was involved in experimental film work with 16mm movie equipment while still in school. His activities brought him into contact with East-German underground band AG Geige, of which he became a permanent member in 1988. He later teamed up with fellow ex-AG. Geige member, Frank Bretschneider to launch the record label Rastermusic.

Bender played a key role in raster-noton’s visual aesthetic from the beginning, later joined by Carsten Nicolai and Ken Nibori. Their work is characterized by a singular design aesthetic that explores typography, colour, material, and form with a limited palette.

Bender’s first solo release as Byetone was the May installment in the 20’ to 2000 series on raster-noton in 1999, a twenty-minute CD of stark percussive patterns in the acclaimed CD magazine series. Several Byetone tracks were included on the 2002 Mort Aux Vaches raster-noton edition (staalplaat); his first full-length solo album, Feld, appeared in 2003, which was released on BineMusic and featured vocals by ex AG Geige member Jan Kummer.

2008 saw the release of Plastic Star, a noisy techno record that featured remixes from Sleeparchive and Dr. Walker. His acclaimed album, Death of a Typographer, followed soon after and ushered in a new period of live performance for Bender. Symeta (raster-noton, 2011), Bender’s third album, stepped more deeply into gritty power electronics and away from the pristine, austere aesthetic raster-noton is known for.

Bender has also released music under the Lumen alias, as well as a series of projects as Signal, the trio that consists of all three raster-noton heads. In 2012, Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) and Byetone (Olaf Bender) started a new collaborative project called Diamond Version that operates at the cutting edge of digital funk.