With its musical origin in the 80s, RaHen has developed Robotiko Rejekto into a serious EBM DANCE project in the mind of fans from all over the world. RaHen mixes his retro style radically and tough-mindedly with musical styles of Alternative, Crossover and Electro.

The new sound impulses can be attributed not least to the music producers and audio engineers Ivo Draganac and Gerhard Bopp who were closely integrated in the album production "Corporate Power".

The congenial co-operation with the performance artist Ava Nima is very important to RaHen. as she had been a driving force to help him getting the RR project back to life after 20 years. Ava is now a valuable part in designing and creating the RR style.

Concerning lyrics and female vocals, RaHen has closely teamed up with the singer and songwriter Fae Cross. Often working behind the scenes, she‘s the one to transport RaHen‘s ideas and his point of view into lyrics and give his messages a sharp edge as well as a female voice, where necessary.

A lot of the lyrics refer to social developments in a world affected by increasing globalization, aggressive militarism respectively the forming of a military-industrial complex in the industrialized countries. The anger about the increasing and seemingly checkless destruction of nature and exploitation of mankind is expressed in the words.

RaHen militates explicitly against triple oppression, i.e. multiple and simultaneous suppression based on sexual, ethnical and class specific affiliation (sexism, racism, classism). Even though the RR team has grown with the comeback, RaHen still likes to work together with other artists to stay open-minded and upgrade the RR style with different performances and ideas. 

Ava Nima

Since 2009, Ava Nima is part of the band project Robotiko Rejekto. In a way, she influenced the reorientation of the band and contributed her own musical atmosphere and visual visions. As an idea generator, she supports and influences the composition and production work of the RR mastermind RaHen. Next to Fae Cross and RaHen, she also contributes key subjects for the songs. Furthermore, she is responsible for visual image, public relations and social media. Ava lives and works close to Frankfurt/M.

Start and musical influences

In the early 80s, Ava consciously experienced electronic music for the first time.

An experience at a concert was formative:

„In 1984, I incidentally visited a concert, in which a single person on stage did nothing but stand behind devices unknown to me, producing electronic sounds. I well remember that I left the concert with the irritating and at the same time strong feeling, that I had witnessed a special moment. Up to this day, I don’t know the name of the artist or his stage performance, but I feel the memory of that innovative thrust (for me) all the more.” 

Among the bands that have lastingly influenced her, she initially counts DAF and Depeche Mode. Later EBM/ industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, The Klinik, yelworC, Sonar, AmGod, and others follow.

Self-understanding and self-perception

Ava looks at herself as an introvert person with a fanciful emotional life. This, she transforms via outward processes into artistry – and with this, she has begun early in life: she starts painting in her youth, tries out painting techniques and creates collages.

Later, her body becomes more important as a means of expression: the free creative character dance in the Palucca style was her start into a body oriented dance education. Subsequently, other styles of body expressions follow.

“The expression of the body via the medium music, says more about a person than words sometimes can.”, she says.

“For me, audio visual art is a possibility to express the dialogue that I hold with people close to me more clearly. Things that move me, upset me, touch me…”

So Ava is critical of the status quo of society. Her attitude and opinions have an effect on RR in different forms, especially concerning the realization of contents in visual forms. Also, in long processes and dealings with own experiences a more and more women-political standpoint emerged:

„I have experienced countless small but also threatening situations that I could only pin down after a certain time of contemplating.

Retrospectively, I should have positioned myself clearer back then, but times were different and women’s role in society as well as accepted behavior was regulated a lot stricter than is the case in modern times. Today, I’d surely often react differently and I wish that women would adhere more clearly to a non-acceptance of certain male behavior”.

“We have to give thought to women’s role in society. That doesn’t only concern issues like violence against women (and children), sexual self-determination and self-determination concerning reproduction, but also the self-evident use respectively misuse of sexist language. 

The confrontation with this topic is therefore also important in the music scene. Here, sexism is also omnipresent. It’s present in music titles and lyrics. Violence against women in videos, pictures and promotion actions is celebrated. With our work, we have the chance to show that an explicit positioning is vital.”

Technology – a balancing act „I look upon the internet and all the possibilities connected with it as Pandora’s Box. We can use the potential lying in this technology, but on the opposite of this, there are great opportunities of misuse like control, supervision, simplification and a mental overload of the people using it.” says Ava.

„In the electronic music, with its multifaceted visual and acoustic means, upsetting events can be concisely presented. This can be an impulse for development processes in the so-called normal society” Ava continues. “Just because there’s seemingly no alternative way to be found at a first glance, one does not have to run into one direction like a flock of sheep.”People should be stimulated to think and ask themselves questions by the songs and videos.