An experimental electronic artist also involved in installation art, Steinbrüchel (born Ralph Steinbrüchel) hails from Zürich, Switzerland. His work remains for the most part confined to the microsound aesthetic, where silence and simple tones are sculpted into abstract designs. His music can be compared to that of Richard Chartier and Ryoji Ikeda. Active since the mid-'90s under different project names (including Das Aktuelle Klangstudio and Multiple Magenta Mess), he has self-released a number of 7" recordings and LPs since 1995, plus the CD-R Sinus in 1999. He made his first laptop concerts in 1998-1999 alongside Zürich, Berlin, and Vienna rising figures of experimental electronica: Byetone, Noto, Pita, and Roger Rotor. The newly established Domizil label expressed interest in his work and began to feature him in showcases with Rotor, Teleform, and Marcus Maeder. Concerts in New York (at the sound art event Waveform) and Paris contributed to build his reputation, while his installation art was displayed in New York and Seoul in 2001 and Los Angeles in 2002. Released on Domizil that year, the zwischen.raum EP is his first relatively widely available piece, and it won the 2002 Max Brand Prize (shared with Volkmar Klien). A collaboration with England's SouRce Research and Cattivo followed shortly thereafter. ~ François Couture