With a career built on decades of pushing -- and sometimes breaking -- the boundaries of punk, electronic, and industrial music, Beate Bartel is one of Germany's most dynamic and enduring experimental artists. Born in West Berlin, Bartel worked as a sound engineer for the city's public broadcasting service, Sender Freies Berlin, before forming the all-female punk band Mania D in 1979 with Karin Luner, Eva Gössling, Bettina Köster, and Gudrun Gut. She was also a founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten, and played bass at the group's first show in 1980. When Luner and Gössling settled in America, the remaining members of Mania D splintered: in 1981, Gut and Köster formed Malaria!, while Bartel collaborated with former Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft member Chrislo Haas. The duo released a series of limited C-10 cassettes as CHBB and then added vocalist Krishna Goineau to become Liaisons Dangereuses. Though they only released a self-titled album and the 1982 single "Los Niños del Parque," their electronic post-punk experiments had a major influence on Berlin's music scene for years to come. Later in the decade, Bartel collaborated with Gut and her Malaria! bandmate Manon P. Duursma as the experimental audio-visual band Matador, who ultimately released a trio of albums (1987's A Touch Beyond Canned Love, 1990's Sun, and 1991's Ecoute). Bartel continued to expand her horizons and roster of collaborators as time went on, working with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds drummer Thomas Wydler on 2007's Soulsheriff and 2012's On the Mat and Off, and remixing artists such as S.Y.P.H. and Fatal Casualties. She also appeared on albums by spoken word artist Myra Davies, including 2008's Cities and Girls and 2017's Sirens. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi