Hainbach (D)

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A pseudonym for Stefan Paul Goetsch, born in 1978, Hainbach is a German musician and composer who is also known for his work as a video maker. He has become internationally famous for his recordings of ambient music and experimental musical techniques on his YouTube channel, which Pitchfork magazine described as “a treasure trove of clips” with titles such as “How to make music with a vintage piano tuner and play live with unknown nuclear instruments and synthesizers.” He started playing piano at the age of six. He studied in Hamburg and now lives in Berlin with his family. Together with Andre Frahm and Jan Elbeshausen, he played in the new wave band called The Dance Inc. until it disbanded in 2009. Under his pseudonym Hainbach uses experimental musical techniques with the tape loop and nuclear test equipment. The British music magazine The Wire described his music as “One hell of a trip.” He has released albums on Opal Tapes, Lavender Sweep Records, Chase Bliss, Soil, Ultraviolet Light, Misc., Springbreak Tapes, SA Recordings, Gohan Tapes, Marionette, Seil Records, and also on Alessandro Cortini’s Limited Interest label. Music websites Bandcamp Daily and The Quietus praised his 2018 album The Evening Hopefuls. As inspiration he has often cited Bela Bartok, 1980s video game soundtracks, Francis Bebey, and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. Stefan has worked on more than 70 plays as composer, lyricist and live musician presented at the Staatstheater Hannover, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Theater Frankfurt, Theater Bonn and Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, among others. In 2017 he composed the score for the documentary Bruderkrieg (English title: War Of Brothers) by Felix Moser and Julian Moser. The two brothers have collaborated with Hainbach on several music videos including Light Splitting’s visual album, which premiered in the UK’s Fact magazine and was selected at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2020. Hainbach created the soundtrack for the 2021 documentary Billions of Windows about the life of Stephen Wiltshire, directed by Sergey Stefanovich. He also wrote the soundtrack for the 2021 documentary The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost, directed by Qinyuan Lei.