SELECTED RECORDINGS
“Experimental music that floats through time and space, somewhere between composition and improvisation, performance and happening. This music has extreme soundtrack potential — unsettling, impressive, and haunting.”
www.paleblueice.com
„Elements from other genres flow into the music without transitions, but don’t dilute the jazz in any way. Rather, they illuminate its modern essence in a new light.“
Jazz ‘n‘ more
„In his original, tasty instrumental compositions, the electric bassist born in 1979, underscores the tonal spectrum of his instrument.“
Jazzthing
“[Angela] Bulloch […] commissions French musician and composer Augustin Maurs to translate the coordinates of Heavy Metal Stack into a composition for six bass guitars. Performed by Berlin bassist Carsten Hein, Heavy Metal Herkules unfolds monolithically like the early work of Glenn Branca […] and deliberately positioning itself against body negation and accelerative dissolution.“
Positionen. Texte zur aktuellen Musik
„Blink 6 is a rich and sophisticated masterpiece, providing a spectrum of experiences from well-crafted compositions to impromptu improvisations!“
SKJazz
„Playful modern jazz firmly rooted in the present moment.“
Jazzthing
„Exciting and often extremely swinging music!“
Guitar & Bass
CURRENT MUSIC PROJECTS
BIO
Carsten Hein started making music in bands that performed original material at a young age, alongside singing in choirs and learning classical piano. He studied jazz and popular music with a focus on bass guitar and minor subjects upright bass and composition at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem, Netherlands. He then pursued a Master’s Degree in Arts and Media Management at Freie Universität Berlin.
Carsten is equally fascinated to take up traditional roles of the bass as well as using it combined with electronics as a source for sound explorations. He has contributed as a bassist to numerous studio productions. Beyond his session work, he also releases his own music—among them the quintet album This (Unit Records, Switzerland) and the self-released solo album Bass Signal Works I (released in October 2025), which explores ambient and electronic textures for bass and electronics.
Based in Berlin since 2004, he works as a freelance bassist in a wide range of different musical genres. Live or in the studio he worked with Neneh Cherry, Ivy Quainoo, Julia Marcell, Ladi6, Nosliw, Lemmy Kilmister, Skew Siskin, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Augustin Maurs, Gene Pritsker, Kristiina Tuomi, The Ruffcats, Mal Élevé, Mellow Mark, Martin Jondo, Marcus Klossek and many more. Concerts and tours have taken him to many countries around the world.
As a stage musician and performer, he has been involved in works for Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Salzburger Festspiele, Theatertreffen der Berliner Festspiele, Grand Théâtre de Genève, MUDAM Luxembourg, Ballhaus Naunynstraße Berlin, Polly Maggoo Amsterdam and others. As a soloist and band member Carsten has won prizes at Jugend Jazzt, the Young Jazz award Tübingen and the Nujazzprijs Dordrecht.
„A skilled navigator of contemporary European jazz sensibilities.“
London Jazz News
PHOTOS
VIDEOS
