That is exactly what he did. He went to study the double bass and started playing with big names almost immediately: Big Band, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Kurt Edelhagen (German equivalent of Quincy Jones), Friedrich Gulda, Don Cherry, etc. However, Jochen still wanted to write his own music. This is when he started writing for WDR, Germany’s biggest TV station. During his time working with WDR, Jochen wrote hundreds of jingles, beds, documentaries, among others.

In order to fulfil his dream of writing film scores he eventually moved to Munich, and was immediately booked for three movies by Germany’s top director Jo Baier. Jo was followed by Konrad Sabrautzky, Xaver Schwarzenberger, Olaf Kreinsen and Caroline Link - who Jochen travelled to the Oscars with in 1996! After writing for more than 200 feature films, Jochen decided to focus on his composing career solely (putting a halt to performing/touring) and moved to Schlehdorf, 20m next to the alpine mountains. Recently Jochen was elected to the board of GEMA.

To balance the brain-centric composing, Jochen is an active member in the Bavarian Mountain Rescue.

Credits:

Academy Award for the movie NOWHERE IN AFRICA

Academy Award nomination for the movie BEYOND SILENCE (and multiple platinum soundtrack album),

Audience Award for the score to FRAUEN, JAZZ UND SCHUHE, Jury Award (same year) for the score to ZU VIELE MUSEN (also script and directing).

Dream commission:

Something unpredictable (e.g: he found himself recording Voodoo ceremonies in Benin, West Africa, for the Wim Wenders’ Documentary ‘VOODOO - MOUNTED BY THE GODS’, then he wrote/conducted the score with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra and collaborated with YELLO).

Instruments:

Recorded live: Double bass, electric bass, Guitar, percussion, stringed instruments, orchestras.