Frank Bretschneider is a musician, composer and video artist in Berlin. He was a founding member of the East German experimental pop group AG.Geige before teaming up with Olaf Bender to develop the Rastermusic label. Most of Bretschneider’s early solo albums - about half a dozen - were under the alias Komet, the first, Saat, appearing in 1996. He released several albums on Mille Plateaux and also Taylor Dupree’s 12K imprint in addition to Raster Noton. The acclaimed ‘Rhythm’ was released in 2008.
 
Bretschneider (1956) was born and raised in Chemnitz, where his aesthetic developed as he listened to pirate radio and smuggled Beastie Boys tapes in the former East Germany. In 1984, inspired by science fiction radio plays and films, he began experimenting with tape machines, synthesizers, and modified guitars. After studying fine arts and publishing several graphic editions, he started his first tape experiments and established a cassette label in 1984.
 
Bretschneider founded AG Geige in 1986, a successful and influential East German underground band band. Though limited to the East before the wall came down, they were invited to perform across Germany and internationally after 1989 and released three albums before splitting in 1993. Bretschneider explored the possibilities of exchange between visual art and music by various means such as film, video and computer graphics.
 
In 1995, Bretschneider and fellow AG.Geige member Olaf Bender founded the Rastermusic record label which eventually merged with Carsten Nicolai´s noton – archiv für ton und nicht ton to form raster-noton in 1999. Since then Bretschneider has released his work on various labels including 12k, Mille Plateaux, Fällt and Bip Hop, and contributed to some well-known compilations like "clicks & cuts" on Mille Plateaux and Raster-noton´s "20' to 2000" series. 2003’s ‘Gold’, Raster-noton’s most blatantly pop album to date, was critically acclaimed and brought Bretschneider international attention. ‘Gold’, however, was topped by the percussive masterpiece released in late 2007, Rhythm, an album that was rated very highly by several major electronic music publications, notably Resident Advisor.
 
A highlight of 2008’s live performances was Auxiliary Blue, originally written by Bretschneider as an audiovisuel performance for the Dexia tower in Brussels, recomposed by Danish sound wizard Ejnar Kanding and performed by Bretschneider with Contemporánea Ensemble in Berlin and Denmark.
 
Bretschneider has performed at music and new media festivals such as Ars Electronica, Cut & Splice, Mutek, Sonar and Transmediale He has worked with artists such as Taylor deupree, Olafur Eliasson, Steve Roden and Ralph Steinbruechel. With Olaf Bender and Carsten Nicolai he runs Signal, Raster-noton’s live laptop project.
 
 > www.frankbretschneider.com
 > www.myspace.com/frankbretschneider
 
Appearances:
> CTM.09 > RASTER-NOTON.RHYTHM_SCREEN