Alexander Hacke
Alexander Hacke – was born in the proletarian district of Berlin Neukölln. A musician from the start, he joined Einstürzende Neubauten in 1980 at the tender age of 14, besides playing in numerous influential underground-groups and writing, recording, releasing and performing music under the pseudonym Alexander von Borsig. Throughout the eighties and up until today he not only collaborates with countless artists of various genres but also continues to produce records and score music for theater, feature and documentary movies.
In 1986 he teamed up with the Australian band Crime And The City Solution. Throughout the 1990s he then recorded and toured with Italian pop-icon Gianna Naninni, formed the alternative country-music outfit Jever Mountain Boys, improvised with Can-drummer Jaki Liebezeit for Japanese avantgarde-star Phew and produced records for the likes of Miranda Sex Garden, French anarchist songwriter Fred Alpi or Berlin post-punk characters Mutter.
In 2005 he starred as the main protagonist in Fatih Akin’s movie “Crossing the Bridge –the sound of Istanbul” and contributed music for the directors award-winning feature “Head On”.
Some of the many movie-productions which bear Hacke’s unmistakable hand-writing are “8 Miles High” a bio-picture about Germany’s premier femme fatale of the sixties and seventies Uschi Obermaier, the Finnish coming-of-age drama “Last Cowboy Standing” by Zaida Bergroth and “Fuori Dalle Corde / Out Of Bounds” the bare-knuckle fist-fighting drama by Italian director Fulvio Bernasconi, for which he received the award for best music at the 26th Festival International Du Premier Film in Annonay, France.
He wrote a spectacular score for Fatih Akins latest movie “The Cut”, an epic tale of a mans search for his daughters during the time of the Armenian genocide in 1915, which opened at 71. Venice Filmfestival in 2014. Subsequently Hacke was nominated in the category Best Music at the German Movie Awards 2015.
Since 2001 Alexander has been collaborating with the American artist Danielle de Picciotto who was singer in the band “Space Cowboys”, conceived the “Ocean Club” together with Gudrun Gut and was co-founder of the “Love Parade”. Together they initiated performances such as “Mountains of Madness” based on HP Lovecraft stories (inviting the English trio “Tiger Lillies” to participate), “Bada Bing” a performance series presenting an eclectic selection of new Berlin bands, “The History of Electricity” an electronic performance, “The Ship Of Fools”, based on the medieval text by Sebastian Brant, “Hitman’s Heel” a collection of songs inspired by the event of the couples embarking on a nomadic excursion, which begann in 2010 and continues on today and numerous international workshops and lectures on the innovative culture in Berlin. Further collaborations of Hacke & de Picciotto, who got married in 2006 include: “Not Junk Yet - The Art Of Lary 7”, a documentary movie about the enigmatic artist from New York City, “Needle At Sea Bottom”, an EP they recorded with him in his legendary Lower East Side studio and “The Glasshouse”, a silent movie with a score they performed live, inviting numerous acclaimed musicians to join them on stages around the world.
Alexander Hacke has released three solo-albums: “Filmarbeiten” a compilation of his early film-works, “Sanctuary”, a so-called Road-Record, which he produced during a journey around the world and “Doomed”, originally conceived for an inter-disciplinary exhibition.
In 2015 he put out his autobiography “KRACH - Verzerrte Erinnerungen”, published by Metrolit a division of the highly regarded German publishing house Aufbau-Verlag.