Born 1965 in Basel, Switzerland. Currently based in Berlin. Joke Lanz is one of the most prolific and profound artists working in the border zones where performance and body art meet Improvisation and Noise. In his Sudden Infant guise, Lanz creates a unique blend of physical sound poetry and epileptic noise bursts, using contact microphones, loops, tapes etc. The result is an extreme form of musique concrète that juxtaposes spasmodic gibbering with a battery of disorienting electronics. Has worked as garbageman, cleaner, caregiver, night watchman, farmer, record dealer, administrative assistant, bike messenger, chocolate manufacturer, technician, housekeeper, and more. Free studies in Performance Art, Noise music, Turntablism. Since 1985 involved with a broad variety of musical projects, such as: Jaywalker, Sudden Infant, Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Psychic Rally, Vehikel & Gefäss, Catholic Boys in Heavy Leather, WAL, and Tell. Composed music for contemporary dance, theatre, films, radio plays, and installations. Collaborations and live shows with: Peter Kowald, Christian Marclay, Z’EV, Shelley Hirsch, Rudolf Eb.er, G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, Daniel Menche, Lasse Marhaug, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Astro, Voice Crack, Carlos Giffoni, MSBR, C.C.C.C., Con-Dom, The New Blockaders, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO Wien), Sixes, DJ Olive, Hans Koch, Ignaz Schick, eRikm, Strotter Inst., Christian Weber, Bill Kouligas, Roger Rotor, Small Cruel Party, Dieb13, Due Process, Christian Wolfarth, Martin Baumgartner, Evil Moisture, Charlotte Hug, Martin Tétreault, Brigitte Wilfing, Ute Waldhausen, Julian Sartorius, Simon Berz, Mike Majkowski and many others. Artist residencies in Berlin, London, Vienna and Cairo. Composition Assignment by Arts Council of Switzerland. Workshops and lectures at Music Academy Lucerne, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, University of Stellenbosch. Innumerable releases on international labels, including Schimpfluch, Tochnit Aleph, Blossoming Noise, RRR, Entr’acte, Artware, Klanggalerie, PAN, SSSM, iDEAL Recordings, Harbinger Sound, and Nihilist Records.