Martin Hossbach, originally from Hamburg and now based in Berlin, is a music supervisor for art-house films and series. (At the moment you can watch two series he has just worked on, 30 TAGE KRANK and BRÜT, here and there). Martin also runs a one-man agency called Martin Hossbach Komposition for film score composers. For Volkstheater Rostock he is the co-curator of the two-day music festival AXIS.

What music does Martin currently listen to in private? Curious? The answer is here.

Since 2004 Martin has been working on 117 films and series as a music supervisor, collaborating with directors such as (in alphabetical order) Maren Ade, Lisa Bierwirth, Frauke Finsterwalder, Sonja Heiss, Christoph Hochhäusler, Ulrich Köhler, Nicolette Krebitz, Nadav Lapid, Angela Schanelec, Maria Speth, Eva Trobisch, Christian Schwochow and Joachim Trier. For a full overview please click on the link here.

Martin Hossbach Komposition represents the following composers: Sam Beste, Gabriel Broid & Gilbert Broid (a.k.a. The White Screen), Pedro Goncalves Crescenti & Peter Rubel (a.k.a. International Music and The Düsseldorf Düsterboys), Tara Nome Doyle, Drangsal, Ebow, Roman Flügel, Gaddafi Gals, Gwilym Gold, Philipp Lauer (a.k.a. Lauer), Lawrence, Max Rieger, Nalan, Rosaceae, Teresa Rotschopf & Patrick Pulsinger, Albrecht Schrader, Stefanie Schrank, Stella Sommer, Studio Bonaparte, Alexis Taylor and walter p99 arkestra.

As a curator Martin has been working for numerous festivals. In September 2023 Martin put on a new festival called AXIS at Volkstheater Rostock – the second edition will take place in autumn of 2025. From 2015 until 2020 Martin was the co-curator of Pop-Kultur festival. He has also worked in the same role for the festivals The Sun Machine Is Coming Down and Foreign Affairs (Berliner Festspiele), Wassermusik and No! Music (Haus der Kulturen der Welt). The first festival Martin co-programmed was SPEX Live which took place at Berghain in 2009.

From 2013 until 2014 The One-Hit Parade was his interpretation of a web-based chart show which featured up-and-coming Berlin-based artists. It was filmed at Kantine am Berghain. Both Pet Shop Boys and New Order wrote original music (i.e. jingles) for it (season 1, season 2).

From 2012 until 2021 Martin ran a record label called Martin Hossbach. On the label Martin put out music of all kinds, including that of Tara Nome Doyle (see below). There were plenty of sub-labels, too. Martin Hossbach Cover (Pet Shop Boys covers only), Demo (demo recordings only), Quarantäne (for a specific album of the group Obstler only), Score (for music for films, so-called library music) and Word (for texts, readings and audio plays). Most of the releases can still be found on download and streaming platforms (this playlist gives you one song from each release, this playlist gives you each and every song released digitally). The distribution of physical media has been discontinued.

Tara Nome Doyle is a Norwegian-Irish singer-songwriter whom Martin met by chance in June 2016 and then managed until the beginning of the year 2023. Tara’s debut album, Alchemy, came out in January 2020 on his own label. It gathered rave reviews (»… like Kate Bush singing songs by Nick Cave at Berghain«, SPIEGEL). Tara’s music has been streamed several million times, her second album, Værmin, was released worldwide to even greater acclaim than her debut in January 2022 – this time in coöperation with BMG Rights Management’s imprint Modern Recordings.

As a journalist (for mainly music-related matters and interviews) Martin worked for Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Berliner Zeitung, taz, Monopol, Travel Almanac, SPEX (as a duty editor from 2007-2010), Rolling Stone (compiling their cover-mount CDs Rare Trax from 2013 until 2019), Intro, Prinz, Szene Hamburg and Max Dax’s Sonic Press (where he started in 1993). Together with Jens Balzer he is the publisher of Die Tocotronic Chroniken (Blumenbar), a monograph about the German avant-rock group Tocotronic.

From 1996 until 1999 Martin was an apprentice at PolyGram and later worked as a product manager for the labels Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips at Universal Classics. He quit in 2003 to become assistant of the artist Christian von Borries, his stint at SPEX, see above, was followed in 2010 by two years at Berghain, co-programming concerts during the week, at Berghain itself and Kantine am Berghain, and developing Halle am Berghain for a prospective opening. In 2013 and 2014 Martin put on New Order and Depeche Mode exhibitions for Deutsche Telekom’s Electronic Beats programme while also arranging for Pet Shop Boys’ only performance of their album Elysium – at Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin.

Martin loves the woman he’s married to, and he loves his family and friends, too. He also loves to write, read, drink, eat, cook, bake, walk, hike, run and cycle. If you would like to get in touch with Martin, please send him an e-mail that says »I love you« in the reference line.

P.S.: The two websites were designed by Norman Palm and programmed by Rasso Hilber.