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I’m hÄK (aka B. Norbert Würtz).
I explore and experiment with diverse sounds, noise, and sonic textures.— using DIY circuits, my molecular synth and field recordings gathered from the world around me.
The results drift between electroacoustic collage, cut-up noise, and a fractured kind of musique concrète — less about genre, more about process.
In 2004, I co-founded the hÄnschenKlein Experimental Music-Video Project with filmmaker and longtime friend Alex Herzog — a space where image and sound collide, and reconfigure.
Since 2019, I’ve been one half of the duo hÄK / Danzeisen, working alongside Philipp Danzeisen. He plays drums; I handle electronics and modular synthesis.
Beyond performing and improvising as hÄK, I also work under my given name, Bernd Norbert Würtz — composing, producing, and designing sound for other artists, as well as for film and installation projects.
hÄK @ at Kantine am Berghain, Karlrecords hÄK/Danzeisen record release event, Photo by Udo Siegfriedt, Berlin 2023
hÄK @ A L’ARME! Festival , Photo by Udo Siegfriedt, Berlin 2021
hÄK @ at Synthesizer Museum, Photo by Chiara Ferraù, Berlin 2025
You could probably fill a library with the narratives and plot twists that emerge from hÄK’s sonic vocabulary.
Conceived as the solo project of electronic composer, producer and performer B. Norbert Würtz, who has been based in Berlin since 2018 after three years in London and ten in Paris, hÄK is informed by a strong interest in noise and atonal music and a background in sound design.
At the heart of hÄK’s work is a modular system composed of synth modules, pure data patches, DIY circuits and self-soldered controllers. He calls it the ‘molecular synthesizer’, a sonic and semantic instrument that he approaches with impeccable style and a punk spirit. Using these means of production to combine synthesised sound with samples, he explores abstract worlds, rhythmic textures as well as psychoacoustic phenomena, producing results somewhere between electro-acoustics and cut-up musique concrète.
All of hÄK’s work, whether for installations or film soundtracks (as in his year-long collaboration with filmmaker Alex Herzog) or in band projects (as in the duo hÄK / Danzeisen with drummer Philipp Danzeisen), displays an acute sense of structure and instinct for timing. His penchant for drama tends to unfold in a slow manner, making it all the more effective.
hÄK has created a musical language that is dynamic and evocative, speaking in tongues, alive like electricity. In short, music with a voice all its own.
Arno Raffeiner / May 2024
