Above and Below

documentary fiction
Switzerland, Germany, USA | 2014 | 118 minutes
written & directed by Nicolas Steiner
maximage, Flying Moon, Swiss Radio and Television, 3Sat Zurich

theatrical release: tba

Original Music by John Gürtler, Jan Miserre & Lars Voges

Verfehlung
(THE CULPABLE)

feature film - drama
Switzerland | 2014 | 95 minutes
directed by Gerd Schneider
AV Medien Penrose & Penrose Film / SWR, BR & Arte
CAMINO FILM VERLEIH

theatrical release: 26th March 2015

score - John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

Wintergast

feature film
Switzerland | 2014 | 90 minutes
written & directed by Andy Herzog & Matthias Günther
LOOKNOW Filmverleih

The score consists of drones, pads and organic textures which serve as a subtle backdrop to the main character’s frustration and inner emotional state. Everyday situations are accompanied by dissonant textures and clusters, emphasizing the protagonist’s despair coming from writer’s block and a nearing deadline. The minimalist music is more likely to be felt than consciously heard by the audience.

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre
John Gürtler: cymbals, samplers, train tones, keyboards
Jan Miserre: piano

Die Unsichtbaren
(The Invisibles)

documentary
Germany | 2014 | 78 minutes
directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer
AV Medien Penrose & SWR

score - John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

Die Zukunft gehört uns (THE FUTURE IS OURS)

documentary
Germany | 2014 | 60 minutes
directed by Marisa Middleton
SWR Young Documentary / INDI FILM

Original Music by John Gürtler

Zerrumpelt Herz (THE COUNCIL OF BIRDS)

feature film
Germany | 2014 | 81 minutes
directed by Timm Kröger

John Gürtler, Jan Miserre : music advisors

backpack

feature film
Indonesia, Germany | 2014 | 90 minutes
directed by Thorsten Wenning

Original Music by John Gürtler

nebel (fog)

documentary
Germany | 2013 | 60 minutes
directed by Nicole Vögele

«fog keeps pretending to have a structure - by the use of written chapter cards and the odd visual occurence of the metaphor that gave the film its title – we see high fog, sea fog, fog and snow, and fog in a club. Just to fall apart again, or better: to morph into something else, eluding the audience. For a large part, this is due to a powerful sound track - where lots of things are going on. Wafting, windy sounds of nature blend into electronic music to then become elements of an unusual horror film. And we go along with it! (Danny Gronmaier, Critic.de)

Original Music by John Gürtler

Majub’s Journey

documentary
Germany | 2013 | 48 minutes
directed by Eva Knopf

Original Music by John Gürtler

John Gürtler: modified piano, mbira, percussion
Tomas Svensson: snare drum

Antons Fest (Party of Eight)

feature film
Germany | 2013 | 93 minutes
directed by John Kolya Reichert

Original Music by John Gürtler
Voice, sax, grand piano and modified piano, harmonium, drums & percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, santur, brass - John Gürtler

Guitars, ukulele, contrabass, voice - Lars Voges
Wurlitzer Electric Piano, arrangement for 'Freak Holiday', recording and mixing assistant - Jan Miserre

Battle of the Queens

documentary
Germany | 2011 | 70 minutes
directed by Nicolas Steiner

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

Erika Stucky: vocals / Balthasar Streiff: alphorn, kuhhorn, zink, euphonium, kornett / Toebi Toebler: hackbrett / David Studer: mouth harp / Marcel Oetiker: schwyzerörgeli / Daniel Eichholz: drums, percussion, marimba, cowbells / Tomas Svensson; percussion / Isabelle Klemt: cello / Lars Dieterich: flute / Jan Miserre: zither, piano, melodica, percussion / John Gürtler: saxophone, harmonium, percussion

«The use of music and sound contribute immeasurably: meditative, almost tribal, music lulls us into a trance-like euphoria, while the temporal discrepancy between sound and image elevates them above the realms of the physical world, and, indeed, beyond our everyday, earthly perception of time and space.» (Mike McKenny, theculturevulture.co.uk 2012)

Soundtrack released by Traumton available on iTunes

Meanwhile in Mamelodi

documentary
Germany, South Africa | 2011 | 75 minutes
directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

John Gürtler: saxophone, piano, kalimba, bass clarinet / Jan Miserre: wurlitzer, clavinet, percussion, music recording and mixing / Lars Voges: guitar / Tomas Svensson: drums / Benjamin Kahlmeyer: bass / Laura Robles: cajon, percussion / Steven Mtsweni: vocals

»For its joyous portrayal of a South African family, its bold use of music, and its belief in the camera to see into another culture« (Special Jury Prize at the Camden International Film Festival 2012)

»This film is about fantastic editing, a noticeably impressive sound design, continuous scenes of exquisite cinematography, and an original pulsating kinetic jazz infused soundtrack that I now absolutely must own!« (Adam Cuttler, FilmBalaya.com)

www.meanwhile-in-mamelodi.com

A Promise

documentary
Germany, Austria | 2011 | 70 minutes
directed by Levin Peter & Elsa Kremser

Original Music by John Gürtler

Composition, vocals, clarinet, piano: John Gürtler
Concert accordeon - Ruslan & Elena Kratschkowski

www.apromise-film.com

Mann im Fahrstuhl
(Man in Elevator)

experimental film | Germany | 2007
directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer & Moritz Stumm
choreography by Meritxell Campos Olivé

Original Music by John Gürtler

Harmonium, saxophone, drums, santur: John Gürtler / Fender Rhodes, FX : Peer Neumann / Contrabass : Derek Shirley / Percussion: Daniel Eichholz, Heinrich Schiffers/ Drums: Thomas Svensson

Additional Music: Heiner Goebbels

miAdidas - Mats Hummels

commercial | Germany | 2013
Love Stone Film
Adidas

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

miAdidas - Julian Draxler

commercial | Germany | 2013
Love Stone Film
Adidas

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

miAdidas - Lukas Podolski

commercial | Germany | 2013
Love Stone Film
Adidas

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

Austrian Airlines - Fly Away

commercial | Germany | 2010
directed by Mario Zozin
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Original Music by John Gürtler & Jan Miserre

Opel Insignia

commercial | Germany | 2010
directed by Sandin Puce
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Original Music by John Gürtler

Jewels

experimental / video art | Portugal | 2013
directed by Sandro Aguilar
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Original Music by John Gürtler & Sandro Aguilar electronics, orchestral textures, field recordings by John Gürtler

Hodsch und ich
(Hodsch and me)

documentary | Germany | 2007 | 87 minutes
directed by Christian Werner
acamara film/Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler

cello, piano, vocals, guitars, double bass, effects, drums, percussion

Between Rounds

documentary | Germany | 2009 | 42 minutes
directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer
Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler

piano, double bass, congas, timbales, percussion

Egal was ich tue

documentary | Germany | 2011 | 80 minutes
directed by Romy Steyer
Penrose Film / ZDF - Das Kleine Fernsehspiel

Original Music by John Gürtler

synthesizers, guitars, electronics, drum machines, electric bass

Sonor

documentary | Germany | 2010 | 37 minutes
directed by Levin Peter
Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler

»At this year's Visions du Réel, one of the most important European documentary film festivals, there is a strong presence of German films. A lot of the attention and an honorable mention of the "Young Audience Jury" went to Levin Peter and his black-and-white film SONOR. It tells the story of a young composer and a deaf ballet dancer who has learned to experience sound in her own way. Together they discover a variety of different sounds, including the everyday noises that surround them, the tamed ambience of sound studios as well as different forms of silence. The young woman's abilities to sense sound, as it were, goes so far that she is able to improvise together with the film composer on the piano. Peter's film is a marvellous work about transcending own's own barriers through sensual sensibility and at the same time a stunning document to the world of silence.«

Press Release for SONOR at Visions du Réel, German magazine "SCHNITT"

nominated for the Gold Panda Awards in Sichuan, China
DOK Fest Kassel, Germany

nominated for the “Goldener Schlüssel” Award 2011
45th International Hofer Filmtage 2011
KAMERaTON – International Festival of Films about Music
“Special Award”, Student Film Festival Belgrad, Serbia
“Best Academic Award” at the FEST International Film Festival Espinho, Portugal 2011 “Honorable Mention” of the jury at Visions du Reel

www.sonor-film.de

Brüderlein (DEAR BROTHER)

short film, drama | Germany | 2013 | 46 minutes
directed by Nora Fingscheidt
Arte/BR/Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler, Lars Voges
guitars, piano, Wurlitzer electronic piano, vibraphone, pump, organ, choir, double bass, drums

Memories on Stone

feature film | Kurdistan Regional Government Iraq / Germany | 2014 | 90 minutes
directed by Shawkat Amin Korki
mitošfilm

music by John Gürtler & Özgür Akgül
vocals, kanun, santur, saz, bendir, davul, double bass, guitar, violin, electronics

Kago

feature film | Germany / Papua New Guinea | 2007 81 minutes
directed by Denis Bivour

Original Music by John Gürtler
Flutes, percussion, electronics

Kracht

mid-length film | Germany | 2010 | 47 minutes
directed by Thorsten Wenning
Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler
Drums, guitars, double bass, organ

Synkope

short film, drama | Germany | 2010 | 25 minutes
directed by Nora Fingscheidt
Filmakademie BW

Original Music by John Gürtler
Vocals, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, drums, guitar, double bass

The Lodger (1927)

by Alfred Hitchcock
Silent film concert @ Sound on Stage Festival 2010

Composition, Saxophone, Wurlitzer Piano, Loops - John Gürtler / Drums – Moritz Baumgärtner / Guitar, Bass Pedals, FX – Samuel Halscheidt

Clavigo, Fotz

inspired by J. W. v. Goethe
stage play by Sebastian Lang
ADK Baden-Württemberg, 2010

Original Music by John Gürtler

Live performance - modified piano, trumpet and effects

Rest Area

eight-hour outdoor installation at the SOS Festival Ludwigsburg 2010
Based on texts by Paul Virilio and Filippo Tommaso Marinett
Director: Sebastian Lang

Original Music by John Gürtler

Live electronics, field recordings

Sand am Meer

experimental/video art by Daniel Beerstecher
2010, 35 minutes

Original Music by John Gürtler

Full orchestra, modified percussion, electronics, slide guitar / with Film Orchestra Zilina, Slovakia

The Wheel

experimental/video art by Lena Thaler
2010, 10 minutes

Original Music by John Gürtler
with Film Orchestra Babelsberg

HASPA - Mutterlandung

commercial | Germany | 2013
directed by Sandin Puce
element-e

Original Music by John Gürtler, Jan Miserre, Lars Voges

Adidas - Take your Stage

commercial | Germany | 2014
directed by Sandin Puce
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Original Music by John Gürtler, Jan Miserre, Lars Voges

Daniel Eltlinger
A Proclamation

artist portrait | Germany | 2012
directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer

Original Music by John Gürtler

Field Kit

record release | 2021
project with violinist / composer Hannah von Hübbenet & John Gürtler

The name Field Kit will sound familiar to anyone who knows anything about electroacoustic sounds and experimentation. It is the name of a workstation: a technical multi-instrument which receives radio signals and alternating voltages with which all kinds of noises and signals can be produced, outputted and controlled. A beautiful name for an instrument, at once abstract and pragmatic, it’s also a perfect name for the duo of Hannah von Hübbenet and John Gürtler.

Their approach is just as fluid, playful, experimental and yet unpretentious as the name implies. Classically trained – both studied at the Universität der Künste Berlin – both have a curiosity that goes beyond the classical. Increasingly uninterested by the narrow structures of classical music, both went on to study film composition at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. There, they became friends and collaborators – quickly discovering a shared love of sonic manipulation instead of musical formalism; a shared drive to disturb, confuse and alienate both tone and emotion.

Both are now successful and award-winning film composers. As Field Kit, they experiment using guidelines and restrictions to give them a framework in which anything and everything can happen: from generating vibrations within the piano to playing tubas backwards or building robotic drummers. They improvise on particular themes, sounds, references or restrictions, creating unexpected harmonies of object and idea.

Both are more interested in emotions than virtuosities. Their unique shared studio in Berlin is the home of their continued musical collaborations, culminating in their debut collection. Now signed to innovative independent label Nonostar Records, their recordings will be released piece by piece from July 31, 2020.

Eigenlicht

record release | 2020

Counterchange presents ‘Eigenlicht’ by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer and award-winning film composer John Gürtler.

Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments and moments of rich ambience, ‘Eigenlicht’ is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin’s infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named ‘Field Station Berlin’, surrounded by forest to the west of the city.

A document of Gürtler’s development, many of the pieces here were first laid down in his bunker-like former basement studios at Drontheimer Straße in north Berlin, before he eventually elevated above ground - both physically and musically - building his current Paradox Paradise studio and becoming an established film music composer. In 2019 John won the European Film Academy Award for Best Score, for his soundtrack for Nora Fingscheidt’s debut feature ‘Systemsprenger’ (System Crasher).

In recent years John collaborated on a number of projects with acclaimed German producer and composer Phillip Sollmann aka Efdemin, performing live and releasing the ‘Gegen Die Zeit’ EP on Sky Walking, a subsidiary of Dial records where he also remixed Efdemin’s ‘Parallaxis’ under the moniker The Borderland State.

In part an ode to the Macbeth Systems M5 modular synthesizer, with its three oscillators, much of the album features the towering instrument, whose uniquely rich tone and rumbling, pure bass end characterises tracks like ‘Eigenlicht’, ‘M5’, ‘Synthetics’ and ‘Five Voice’.

“The M5’s built in spring reverb and huge sliders and faders - as opposed to all the tiny knobs on Eurorack synths - make it as playable as any acoustic instrument.”

John’s primary background is in acoustic music, coming from woodwind and keyboard instruments, improvisation and composition. The leap into working with computers and electronic instruments found him exploring ways to make synths and samplers sound as organic as possible.

One of the first analog synths John bought was a polyphonic soviet-built Electronics EM-25 (Электроника ЭМ-25) that he had shipped from Uzbekistan. It was cheap, but built like a tank and sounded like something between an organ and a Roland Juno synth. You can hear it on ‘Russia Falling’ - just like the title, the softly detuned chords descend as the track builds to its howling peak.

Part of John’s ongoing search took him to amplifying synthesisers in unusual spaces, from the vast basement corridors outside his old Drontheimer Straße studio to the 12 second-long reverb spaces of the Teufelsberg Station. The track ‘Old Devil’s Hill’ is a spontaneous composition played on saxophone, recorded in the middle of Field Station Berlin's highest dome.

“I was driving up there regularly with a friend, dragging instruments and battery powered amplifiers up the hill, through holes in the fence and all the way up a tiny staircase to the highest point above Berlin, just to get that amazing sound. It’s such a strange reverb because it tunes every single note into near perfect pitch.” Through connecting different kinds of old and new wind controllers, John was able to play synthesizers with a controller similar to a saxophone or clarinet, that would recognise lip pressure and intensity of breath. You can hear the M5 brought to life on ‘Eigenlicht’, a tribute to the synth’s Scottish creator Ken Macbeth, as John plays it with a breath controller, layering intertwining patterns before opening up into a joyous solo.

“The faders on the M5 are so wide that I’d stick a tape beneath them and draw lines for certain notes, creating scales I could play with without using a keyboard, like on the track ‘M5’. I had brought a lot of old leaves, branches and plant seeds into the studio to create an earthy drone bed for the track. It also features a Santur which my parents brought back from Tehran as they fled back to Europe on account of the revolution in ’79.”​ Most of the tracks feature improvised performance elements, often allowing a certain ‘first take’ magic.

For a period John had an original Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 at the studio. ‘Suchend’ is a first take, one take recording.

“I love the way there’s this rhythmic warbling coming from the synth, it almost sounds like an old record. I used to pass up this kind of track for being unspectacular, but looking back it’s the spontaneous and simple ones that (still) stand out to me...”

Like Before (Songs 2005 - 2015)

A very personal collection of songs I've written and sung over a decade. I've been sitting on this for a couple of years now and have finally mustered up the courage to share it with you ;)

Most of these songs have been inspired or are outtakes of the film work we have done over the last couple of years and feature some of my closest friends and performers.

Bangkok Noir - Stay Eager

commercial | Thailand | 2018
Director, Editor & DoP: Benjamin Kahlmeyer
Original Music by John Gürtler
Voice: Terry Burns

"While traveling South East Asia in 2016, GETAWAY magazine asked me to do a hands-on review of the new Sony Alpha A7s II - focusing on it’s performance in low light situations. Inspired by the rich impressions of Bangkok night life, I decided to come up with a short essay on photography, interweaving passages of Susan Sontag’s famous quote: Stay eager!"