Bit-Tuner.
Sound finds new spaces.
Bit-Tuner on focused listening, field recordings and the open framework of a live film score.
Marcel Gschwend · Bit-Tuner
A theatre production can spark a track; a live recording may later find its way back onto a stage. For Marcel Gschwend, known as Bit-Tuner, those routes run in both directions. Ahead of his Audio Journey at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, we discuss beatless music, everyday sounds as playable material and his curiosity about an encounter with a double bass and a loudspeaker system.
Bit-Tuner is the project of Swiss producer and live musician Marcel Gschwend. He combines analogue and digital sound generators with field recordings and also works in theatre and film. We received his answers and four photographs on 5 November 2026.
Music for close listening
Listening is central to your Audio Journey at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen on 21 November. What would you like to share with the audience there that might easily get lost in a club set?
I’ll certainly play plenty of beatless tracks and more experimental, perhaps even slightly challenging pieces: music that would tend to go beyond the scope of my regular solo sets. I also want to consciously engage with the space and acoustics of the foyer at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen and shape my selection accordingly.
Between track and theatre
On your website, Go To Hell VIP presents a new version of a track from a theatre production. When revisiting material, how do you recognise that it can become something independent?
Some of the material already works independently, detached from the original context of the theatre production. In the case of Go To Hell VIP, I tightened the arrangement and optimised the mix. But it often happens the other way round too: I draw on tracks from my library or live recordings and integrate them into a theatre production. The exchange between these two worlds isn’t a one-way street.
The exchange between these two worlds isn’t a one-way street.
When noises become playable
You also work with field recordings. When does a recording change from an everyday noise into a musical building block for you?
That can happen in different ways. On the one hand, I use field recordings to give a track a particular atmosphere or sonic depth. For that, I often use longer excerpts. On the other, I use short snippets, sampling them and then working with them rhythmically, or mapping them onto a keyboard to play them melodically. That’s how an everyday sound can suddenly become a musical element.
A framework for improvisation
For Strike (a silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein in 1925), you’re performing live to a silent film in November. How much room do you leave yourself to respond spontaneously to the images during the screening?
I leave myself plenty of room. To prepare, I watch the film once and decide what equipment setup to bring. I also load suitable sequences onto my two MPCs.
That establishes a certain rhythmic and sonic framework. Within that framework, the actual live score emerges, largely through improvisation, and I can respond spontaneously to the images.
New territory with double bass
In December, you’re playing at Palace with Patrick Kessler (Chuchchepati Orchestra). What appeals to you about bringing your electronics together with a double bass?
I’m an electric bass player myself, and I’ve gained a lot of experience with improvisation both as a bassist in various band lineups and as an electronic musician. I’ve never played together with a double bass before; this is therefore new territory for me too. I’m really looking forward to this evening in St. Gallen.
Bit-Tuner
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Studio Siebrecht Photography · Michael Siegenthaler · Schaub Stierli Fotografie