Jochen Gutsch is a Sydney-based musician and composer.

Growing up in Germany, he was surrounded by classical music, playing the trumpet in orchestras, chamber groups and solo settings, winning several titles at the prestigious Jugend Musiziert competitions. As a teenager, he switched to electric guitar and shifted his attention to many forms of progressive and unusual music, including math-rock and hardcore, experimental and electronic music, and contemporary chamber music. 

Since then, Jochen has played more than 500 shows, not just all over Australia and Germany, but also in London, Bangkok, Jakarta, Helsinki, Tampere, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Rome, Bologna, Cesena, Pescara, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Enschede, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Lisbon and other places. In addition, more than 40 releases of his original music have been published by independent labels around the world, plus various guest spots on other artists’ albums and appearances on compilations.

Jochen’s ongoing band projects are Hinterlandt, Recalibrate and Snob Club:

Hinterlandt is a Sydney-based ensemble of classically trained musicians playing Jochen’s original compositions, in which he combines intricate string arrangements with trumpet, guitar, and female vocals, bridging the gaps between classical chamber music, contemporary jazz and more conventional song structures. Recalibrate is a Sydney-based trio blending math-rock with dub reggae and sporadic hardcore outbursts, while Snob Club is a Bremen-based trio playing intense, instrumental noise rock.

In addition to these bands, Jochen is generally open to engage in one-off collaborations and other creative projects, such as commissioned compositions and solo ambient works.

Jochen sees beauty in diversity. His work is about the creation of organic arrangements based on a variety of methods, instruments, and compositional concepts. Combining, merging and blending seemingly contrasting movements and sections, he takes care to create coherent and accessible arrangements and songs.