Born on 14th October 1951 in Örnsköldsvik. After a completed engeneering exam in 1972 he started his musical career studying the cello in Härnösand and in Essen, Germany. Between 1975 and 1978 he played the cello in the orchestra of Stora Teatern, Göteborg and from 1979 to 1986 he studied composition with Torsten Sörenson, Sven-Eric Johanson and Rune Lindblad.

Käck worked as a free-lance composer within the fieldes of electroacoustic music and multumedia from 1979 to 1986 and after that he studied musicology and philosophy for some years at the University of Göteborg. 1990-1997 he was editor of the cultural magazine Ny Kultur. In recent years he has undertaken several composer tours under the joint auspices of the Institute for National Concerts and Musik i Väst.

At present he is working part time as a computer consultant and teacher, specializing in Desktop Publishing and computer graphics. The rest of his time is devoted to composing, mainly chamber music for solo instruments and small ensembles. He was elected a member of Society of Swedish Composers in 1983.

"In my compositions I have been working with tonal, modal, 12-tone, serial, aleatoric and algorithmic techniques. Nowadays I use my own method, a personal synthesis of several years´ experimentation. My prime sources of inspiration are baroque music, Balinese gamelan and certain forms of minimalism."

Max Käck has devoted considerable attention to intermedia compositions: film strips using both electronic and instrumental music. One early example is Nästan (Almost), from 1981, dealing with the conflict between nature and technology. Among other things that composition includes a monologue for solo cello. In Genomträngningen (The Breaking Through), the composer has contrasted a choir with a recorded tape whose function can be compared to that of an orchestra, with pictures added. He has also derived inspiration from Greek mythology, most conspicuously in Undre världens fyra floder (The Four Rivers of the Underworld), a work in four movements which, he himself remarks, he was intent on casting in a symphonic mould. Stig Jacobsson/Max Käck

Photo: Lars Torndahl

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