About

I’m Daniel Klein – a drummer, composer, and musician based in Leipzig. My work moves between acoustic improvisation, electroacoustic composition, and the development of hybrid setups in which technology is not merely a tool but an active co-creator.

My early musical influences trace back to my childhood in Frankfurt am Main. As the son of a sound engineer for the Frankfurt Ballet under William Forsythe and a singer who performed with the band Grabhund, I grew up in an environment where music was both physical experience and aesthetic inquiry. A concert by the Art Ensemble of Chicago in 1991, which I attended as a child, left a lasting impression on me.

I began my formal training early, studying classical percussion for ten years with Detlef Schröder at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfurt. During this time, I developed a deep appreciation for sonic precision, instrumental craftsmanship, and the idea of a consciously shaped sound. Later, I explored various popular genres and played in a number of bands ranging from indie to metalcore to punk. It wasn’t until I moved to Berlin in 2010 that I discovered my passion for improvised music and more advanced musical concepts. Engaging deeply with Black American Music (jazz) opened up a profound expressive vocabulary that continues to shape my playing.

A pivotal moment came in 2018, when I composed the music for a theater production of Goethe’s Faust I & II at the ETA Hoffmann Theater in Bamberg. For this production, I developed a sensor-based drumming system using Sunhouse Sensory Percussion, in combination with a surround sound setup and Ableton Live. This experience offered not only technical innovation but also a return to a space that had shaped me since childhood – the theater. It marked the beginning of my current artistic outlook: an approach in which sound is understood as situational action, and instruments function as systems that don’t just represent structure, but actively generate it.

Today, I consider my drum set a modular instrument – composed of hardware, software, movement patterns, and sonic intuition. It’s no longer a conventional setup, but a space for research, interaction, and transformation. The architecture of this system influences my musical decisions, shapes form, and opens up new expressive possibilities.

I don’t see my work as a break with tradition, but as a continuation. I’m less interested in what the drum set was, and more in what it can become. How can musical innovation be envisioned – and made audible – in 2025? How can it speak clearly, beyond clichés, yet in dialogue with history and the present?

My projects often emerge in collaboration, sometimes solo, occasionally for stage or film. What unites them is a deep interest in sound as a medium of insight – and a desire to create relationships through music: between people, technologies, and moments.