Ben Lukas Boysen

About Ben Lukas Boysen

With a deep curiosity for sound and an ever-evolving approach to composition, Berlin-based composer and producer Ben Lukas Boysen has built a career on transforming unusual sounds into compelling music. Beginning as a teenager experimenting with samplers and tape loops, Boysen released his first album in 2003 before going on to establish his own studio in Berlin. Since then, he has produced many albums under the alias Hecq and released four LPs on Erased Tapes Records under his own name. Boysen first joined Erased Tapes in 2016 with the re-release of his debut album Gravity, and a new album Spells, both of which were mixed and mastered by friend and fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm. Spells merges programmed piano pieces with live instruments, combining the controllable technical world with the unpredictability of live instrumentation. This approach has been a defining feature of Boysen’s work, allowing his compositions to feel both organic and meticulously crafted. Boysen’s most recent album, Alta Ripa (2024), signifies a seismic shift in his artistic journey. It revisits the foundational impulses of his youth, shaped amidst the serene beauty of rural Germany - a bucolic backdrop where his creative palette flourished. It was his move to Berlin in the early 2000s, however, that electrified his sound, infusing it with the city’s pulsating energy and diverse cultural influences. Alta Ripa captures this transformative experience, blending the introspective melodies of his rural beginnings with the bold, experimental tones of Berlin’s vibrant electronic music scene. As Boysen describes it, Alta Ripa is “something the 15-year-old in me would have liked to hear but only the grown-up version of myself can write.”