Congratulations to Hauschka on His Oscar Win

The composer and pianist Volker Bertelmann, also known as Hauschka, added an Oscar to his list of accomplishments earlier this month for his work on All Quiet On The Western Front, the recent remake of a classic anti war book and movie from the 1930s. This is Bertelmann’s first Academy Award (for Best Original Score) and the latest in a string of collaborations with director Edward Berger alongside whom he also worked on the Showtime series Patrick Melrose. 

Bertelmann’s work is close to us here at HEDD Audio as he’s been an early supporter of our products and technology. Back in 2021, we visited him in his Berlin studio to discuss how the HEDDphone and our monitors helped him get the neutral, objective view on music he needs to perfect his mixes.

In our interview, he noted that what attracted him to HEDD was our desire to innovate through experimentation because “without risks things can’t develop in the right direction.” 

In All Quiet On The Western Front, Bertelmann used a harmonium owned by his great-grandmother to replicate the sounds of war, an extension of his compositional approach based on prepared piano and electronics to extract unique and captivating sounds from the most unlikely of sources. 

This is the second time that a composer who uses HEDD has won the Academy Award in the Original Score category. In 2020, Hildur Guðnadóttir became the first Icelander to win an Oscar (and the first woman to win in the category since it was updated in 2000) for her score on The Joker. As with Bertelmann, the Icelandic musician and composer found that HEDD monitors were the perfect solution to bring her into the music.