Michael Klaukien (b: 1974) comes from an old Rhineland drum and electronic organ dynasty. At an appropriately early age, he found his way to his father’s drums in the boiler room, which for many years then served as both a workshop for the emerging musician and the hotspot of the of the rocking Niederholtorfer music scene. With the musical sideline of his father at hand, Klaukien relatively quickly developed his first professional vision: The precocious five year old wanted nothing to do with dance music. Rather he found his way to scoring music for film.
Having received his high school diploma, the hopeful drummer and budding composer widened his musical range. From Spartan Heavy Metal to Roots Reggae, Klaukien explored the spectrum of his musical abilities. His first gigs were at home, in Bonn, but he then moved to exotic locations like Vinxel (near Koenigswinter), Aruba (near Curacao) and finally—his baptism by fire with the band “One Tribe”—as the opening act for Bob Marley’s Band “The Wailers, “ as well as Maceo Parker. Having been primed and enthused by these early experiences, there was clearly only one career path for the young Klaukien, that of professional musician.
Fortunately, the Cologne University of Music, agreed with Klaukien’s assessment and he was accepted for the study of percussion and piano. Among others, he studied under Professor Michael Küttner (percussion) and Hans Lüdemann (piano) and graduated “summa cum laude. Having received this academic stamp of approval by the university, Klaukien went on to befittingly intricate musical experimentation: An Electro-Jazz-Project with guitarist Alex Gunia (residing in Oslo), Alex Gunia’s Peace, was born and, in turn, this collaboration gave rise to albums with renowned artists such as Randy Brecker, Bill Cobham, Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft and Electro-Guru Rob Acid (Robert Babicz).
Blessed with a down-to-earth sense of economics, Klaukien also explored the landscape of commercial music. For a time, he worked successfully as a TV drummer for the Norwegian pop legend a-ha, wrote gold warded orchestral arrangements for rock bands, such as Revolverheld, wrote soundtracks for promotional/brand films and produced music for record companies and publishers, among them Warner Music, Sonoton and Emi Music Publishing. From his chosen home, Cologne, Klaukien fondly recalls that after uncountable smaller projects, the first ‘Tatort’ knocked at the door. It’s no wonder then that this knock at the door of the then-26 year old Kaulkien’s (self-described) bachelor pad in the Agnes-Quarter brought not only his former Miramusic colleague, Andreas Lonardoni, to the house but also the perspective of a career as a full-time film score composer.
Until today Michael Klaukien composed the score to more than one hundred Movies.
He lives with his wife and daughter near cologne, germany.