Brinkmann had in fact been experimenting with carved-groove records since the 1980s. He studied art at the Düsseldorf Academy but was reportedly expelled for his philosophies. Influenced by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Steve Reich, Panasonic, and Dan Bell, it was Mike Ink's Studio 1 singles series that inspired him to begin recording seriously. Brinkmann modified an existing turntable by adding another tone arm (one for each channel of the output, left and right) and slowing down the material to record his own variations. When Ink heard them, he released two EPs of the material on his Profan label (later collected on one CD).

Brinkmann debuted his own productions with the founding of the Ernst label, which released several singles of sharply defined minimalist dub-techno (each using women's names for titles) in keeping with the work of Berlin's Basic Channel collective and BC-associate Stefan Betke (aka Pole). Brinkmann also launched two other labels -- Max (with men's names for titles) and Suppose, which featured full-length releases Totes Rennen and Weisse Nacht by the alias "Ester" Brinkmann. Brinkmann's next step involved reworking the dozen 12" singles originally released during 1996 by Plastikman's Richie Hawtin in a series called Concept. After traveling from Cologne to Hawtin's base in Canada, Brinkmann thrilled Hawtin with the results and by early 1998, a CD of Brinkmann's Concept variations was released on Hawtin's M_nus label. A year later, Brinkmann contributed a volume in the 20' to 2000 series and inaugurated his own Ernst series with "Anna/Beate."