Frank Bretschneider[DE]

Photo by Dieter Wuschansky.

Frank Bretschneider is a Berlin-based composer known for rhythmic-sine-funk experiments. A veteran of Germany’s electronic music scene, his involvement dates back to pre-unification days with the experimental pop group AG.Geige. He later co-founded influential imprint Raster.

Born in Obercrinitz, where he grew up listening to pirate radio and smuggling Beastie Boys tapes, Bretschneider studied fine art and worked as a graphic designer. In 1984, inspired by science fiction radio plays and films, he began experimenting with tape machines, synthesizers, and modified guitars.

Two years later, Bretschneider founded cassette label klangFarBe, and co-founded AG.Geige (German: work group violin), a successful East German underground band influenced by Dada, The Residents, and Soviet science fiction. In 1995, Bretschneider and fellow AG.Geige member Olaf Bender (a.k.a. Byetone) founded the Rastermusic record label, which then merged with Carsten Nicolai's noton – archiv für ton und nicht ton in 1999 to become Raster-Noton.

Since then, Bretschneider's work has been released on various labels, including 12k, Mille Plateaux, Fällt, and Bip Hop, and appeared on well-known compilations such as Mille Plateaux's Clicks & Cuts. However, it was his 2003 album Gold — Raster-Noton's most blatantly pop album to date — that brought Bretschneider international acclaim. Rhythm, released a few years later, in 2007, was a percussive-funk masterpiece that received great reviews and marked an upswing of interest in rhythmic minimal aesthetics generally and Raster-Noton in particular. 

In recent years, Bretschneider has continued releasing records, such as KIPPSCHWINGUNGEN, SUPER.TRIGGER, and most recently, LUNIK. Released on Shitkatapult, LUNIK was shaped by the sounds of New York, London Berlin, San Francisco, and Cologne, offering a particular, sparse take on psychedelia. 

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Fri 25.01.2019, 18:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Sat 26.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Sun 27.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Mon 28.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Tue 29.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Wed 30.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Thu 31.01.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Fri 01.02.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Sat 02.02.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

Raster.Labor

nGbK, Sun 03.02.2019, 12:00

Installation by Byetone + Mieko Suzuki, Dasha Rush, Frank Bretschneider, Grischa Lichtenberger, Robert Lippok

CTM / transmediale Collaborative Concert I

HKW, Fri 30.01.2015, 21:00

Frank Bretschneider & Pierce Warnecke, Robin Fox & Atom TM

Medizin nach Noten

HAU2 WAU, Sat 25.01.2014, 22:00

DJ-Sets by Frank Bretschneider, Olaf Bender, Carsten Nicolai

Subharchord – A Child Of The Golden Age

Funkhaus Nalepastr., Sat 02.02.2013, 12:00

Ina Pillat, Gerhard Steinke, Carsten Seiffarth, Frederic Rzewski, Frank Bretschneider, Biosphere & The Pitch