Gesaffelstein

MASTERCLASS

Mike Levy is a composer and musician. He chose the pseudonym Gesaffelstein, a contraction of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art or all-embracing art form in German) and Einstein, to reconcile techno music with its industrial roots. Born in Lyon in 1985, he discovered Green Velvet's track “Flash”, which kick-started his obsession for this primal yet low-pitched sound. He borrowed synthesisers, and, immediately at ease with these instruments, he embarked upon creating his own, distinctive sound; unique, dark and even slightly oppressive. He released a number of EPs, and then saw his career really take off with the release of his first album “Aleph” in 2013. In 2015, he composed the soundtrack to Alice Winocour's Maryland, a unique, very dark score with violent and quasi-religious undertones.