Name: Stefan Paul Goetsch aka Hainbach
Occupation: Composer, sound artist, producer
Current Release: Hainbach teams up with Ah! Kosmos for Blast of Sirens, out via FUU.
Recommendations on the topic of sound:
David Byrne - How Music Works
Lloyd Bradley - Bass Culture
Francis Bebey - African Music: A People’s Art
Mark J. Prendergast - The Ambient Century

If you enjoyed this Hainbach interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.

[Read our Ah! Kosmos interview about the Magic of Sound(s)]



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Music creates worlds in my head that I can traverse. I always listen and preferably play with eyes closed.

You can hear that on the piano piece “Brute Heart“ - I played it entirely with eyes closed, trying to serenade the micro sounds Ah! Kosmos created



How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

Headphones enable to soundtrackify the mundane - a shopping trip, a walk in the park. That is a wonderful experience.

At home, I always listen via speakers if I can. It is nice to feel bass instead of just hearing it.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Francis Bebey, any album for the intimacy and “self-recorded“ feeling of it, compared with extensive musicality. It is all very loose and “played“.



It is reminiscent of Songs in the key of life record by Stevie Wonder which also meshes electronics with acoustics in wonderful ways.



Also, anything by Lee Scratch Perry form the Ark Studio days - such a rough and alive sound. It kicks on sound systems across the world.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I react to tape very directly. It has an element of liveliness that adds so much to any signal recorded onto it.

And then touching tape is like manipulating time itself. It can howl. Very human in its technicality.

On “Moonday“ off our new album, you can hear an ancient Hungarian tape echo ache its way through a loop.



There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

Well I am not going to listen to my alarm for extended periods of time, but I have no problem listening to the similarly abrasive Davolisint we used on our new album (“Davolia”).



It is a question of application for me - sounds are either useful or not useful at a particular moment. A ticking clock drives me mad when I am in the room with it, but when I layer it into a track it becomes wondrous.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

I confess that I love singing in the shower. The reverb there is just fun.

I often recorded there when I did songs for theatre on location.



Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

We had an anechoic chamber at university, and I found it suffocating. Listening to my own blood flow reminded me very much of death.

I don’t feel I need to repeat that experience.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

My studio. It is extension of me thanks to being filled with a lot of unique pieces I learned to work with.

Sharing it with Ah! Kosmos made it even more enjoyable to record there, as I got to experience these instruments through her eyes and ears.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

I feel music in my fingertips, especially textures.

That is why I often gravitate to sounds that have complex structures in them, they give me a physical reaction.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

If I don’t make music, I get cranky. It is the biggest dopamine hit I get, so I make sure to work on it as much as possible.

Acoustic health - I would have to research what that entails. But putting up acoustic curtains in my Berlin bedroom helped me a lot to sleep deeper and better.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

I do a ton of field recording, so whenever I hear something that moves me I record it and turn it into music.

Just now I made a beat from stones thrown into a river. The act of organizing these sounds into music is very enjoyable.

I know Ah! Kosmos hid some field recordings in our tracks.

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I use ear protection when I go to soundchecks. That is by far the biggest risk for the sudden noise bursts that kill your hearing.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Silence is an illusion, there is always sound. But by using it in music you can emphasize both the music and the surroundings.

I will get to play “4:33” in a concert setting in 2025, and I am very excited about that.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

We would not build buildings and rooms that resonate until your head splits. How many times have I seen people create these big new clean spaces and then sit in a reverb mess where conversation is impossible.

I put up acoustics in our kindergarten and that made everyone that worked there so happy. They could now talk in a “normal“ voice and be understood, while before everything turned into a shouting match.