Freelance Sound-designer for Arturia, Native Instruments, Zenhiser
Book Author for Waves
Music Projects: Torsten Fassbender, Wellenrausch, Kymatik
Releases on: Platipus, Afterglow, Sudbeat, Beat Boutique, Coldharbour, Lowbit, Slideways, Polyptych, Vesta, Suffused Music, Balkan Connection and lots more.
Genre: Trance, Progressive Trance & House, Melodic Techno
The Beginning -
Torsten Fassbender was born in 1970 in Velbert, a small, placid German town. He first started using computers at the age of 12. Thanks to his parents, he had the chance to learn how to play the guitar and the piano. Due to his playful approach to the world of music and electronics, he soon discovered his love and passion for electronic music. His favorite artists at that time were Kraftwerk, Jean Michael Jarre and Vangelis, but also inspired my computer musicians like Yazz, JCH, Drax, Joeren Tel, Maniacs of Noise, Jochem Hippel and lots more.
Several years later, he was introduced to a program called "Soundtracker" on the Commodore Amiga and was instantly hooked. This program, created by Karsten Obarski, gave him the tools he needed to start creating his own music using a computer. From 1984 until 1998, he composed and arranged many soundtracks and in-game-effects for various games and demos. Encouraged by this line of work, Torsten began to build his own home-studio and was eventually introduced to the possibilities of MIDI. Finally, he had the means to realize his musical ideas the way he wanted them to be.
When Torsten heard one of the first techno songs at a party in Belgium, he knew this was the style he had always been looking for. Therefore, he expanded his equipment and worked on his first tracks driven completely by MIDI synthesizers. His first releases followed in 1994 with different labels all across Europe. In 2000 he founded his latest project called "Wellenrausch," which became popular in the progressive trance scene rather quickly.
Life as a musician -
Torsten's productions and remixes for artists such as Markus Schulz, The Thrillseekers, Gai Barone, Basil oGlue, Andy Moor, Blank&Jones and lots more are present on a number of compilations and almost every top DJ in the world includes his tracks in their playlists. He worked with a huge amount of different labels, such as Afterglow Records, Slideways Music, Vandit Records, BMG, Suffused Music, Balkan Connection, and the label history does not end. In 2005 he got the offer from high nominated Software Developer "Waves Audio" to write a Production Book for their "Sound.org" Openmix(TM) Series. This book, The Trance Experience, received great reviews from M8 Magazine (UK), I-Dance (UK), iDJ Mag (UK), Mixmag (UK), Keyboards (France), Coda Magazine (France), Only for Djs (France) and 365music.com. After this success as Tutor and Author he focussed again on his musical carreer. In 2009 he re-started his already in the year 2000 founded project „Wellenrausch“, together with the Austrian singer and songwriter Markus Geisberger. They formed their special unique sound signature and were touring successful through whole Europe. They released 2 Albums and were supported by the biggest names of Music industry. In 2019 he will continue under his real name on the Platipus Imprint, which was a dream for him for ages.
Life as a SoundDesigner -
As sound design was always his passion, and of course a big part of his day-by-day studio work he stepped into the professional sound design work.