Burkhard Beins, born 1964 in Lower Saxony, lives in Berlin since 1995. As a composer/performer working in the fields of experimental music and sound art he is known for his definitive use of percussion in combination with selected sound objects. Furthermore, he works with live-electronics and analog synthesizers.  

Photo: Ingo Scheffler

Since the late 1980's he is performing at internationally renowned venues and festivals throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia as diverse as the LMC Festival (London), Int. Ferienkurse (Darmstadt), SKIF (St. Petersburg), Musiktage (Donaueschingen), Musique Action (Nancy), Cave 12 (Geneva), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Kid Ailack Music Hall (Tokyo), Gaudeamus Festival (Amsterdam), Liquid Architecture (Australia), Meteo (Mulhouse), Taktlos (CH), Serralves (Porto), Wien Modern (Vienna), MoMA (New York), New Music Festival (Hanoi), or Maerzmusik (Berlin).  He is a member of Activity Center, Polwechsel, Mensch Mensch Mensch, Glück, The Sealed Knot, DNB, Perlonex, Trio Sowari, Tree, Fracture Mechanics, and Splitter Orchester and also works with Sven-Åke Johansson, Andrea Neumann, Keith Rowe, Tarek Atoui, Chris Abrahams, John Tilbury, Charlemagne Palestine, and many others.  Meanwhile he has released more than 40 CDs and LPs on labels like Zarek, Erstwhile, Hat Hut, Potlatch, Absinth, or Confront. His first Solo-CD "Disco Prova" has been released in 2007 and combines field recordings and percussion material with digital multitracking, followed in 2009 by "Structural Drift", a result of a sound art residency at Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, involving analog synth, sound objects, and live-electronics.  Burkhard Beins gives lectures and workshops, has published several articles on music theory, and is a co-editor of the book "Echtzeitmusik Berlin - Self-Defining a Scene" as well as the curator of a follow-up 3CD compilation featuring the Berlin Echtzeitmusik scene.