biography//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Beni Reimann was born in 1974 in Konstanz as the youngest son of a musician’s family and has been sorrounded by music from the day of his birth. As a little child, his parents and elder brothers taught him how to play the recorder flute and violin, but even then, he was already fascinated by the drums. He started beating on everything he found and got drum and vibraphone lessons at the age of 11. Besides that he took lessons in piano and music theory. At the same time, Beni Reimann started to play in classical orchestras and groups, where he became familiar with all the mallet and drum instruments. At 14, he was already taking part in jazz and rock projects with skillful musicians, performing at the „Konstanzer Jazzherbst“ and similar events. At the age of 17, lessons in composition followed, and the result was 6 original pieces for different instrumentation. Beni Reimann played several concerts with the „Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie“, worked as a musician at the theatre in Konstanz and had his first experiences as a drum teacher.
In 1996 Beni Reimann fell in love with Berlin and decided to live there. At that time, he formed a very productive cooperation with his brother Christoph Reimann. During that time, they explored new possibilities to combine instrumental music with computer-generated music. This led to several band projects and album releases (Transporter, Sonic Slacker Collective, No Guns, Christoph Reimann Trio/Quartet). Another important constant in Beni Reimanns musical work since 2000 is Michael Fetscher and his record label flavoredtune.
In 2003, the members of „lateralmusic“ joined Christoph Reimann, Ramesh Shotham and Aly Keita to develop and perform „Towers of babel“ with 125 young artists and writers of 22 nationalities at the Landesmuseum Mainz. This project was a combination of literature, the plastic arts, dance, theatre, film and music. With Ulla Viol (piano/composer) and Sven Mühlbradt (bass), Beni Reimann performed live, creating an instrumental version of the Jules Verne-based movie „Journey to the center of the earth“. The band appeared in very experimental settings like caves, empty factories, bunkers and coal mines. One venue was 800 meters under the earth.
Beni Reimann played in many jazz bands (Ruhestand, lateralmusic, Alchemy, Grooveroodel...), but he was never afraid to move in other musical directions (Naomi, Petgroove, niedlich 666, Palma Kunkel...). He also worked as a film score composer and studio musician and continued teaching, not only drums but also piano, vibraphone, percussion and music theory.
In Berlin, Beni Reimann fell in love again, this time it was not with the city but with his wife Helma. Together with their two sons Felix and Jonas, they moved to Freiburg in 2007. In the meantime, Beni Reimann is also giving guitar and band lessons. He plays in the Swing-Comedy-Project "The Shoo-Shoos", the Jack Johnson Cover Band "Rodeo Clones", the Brasil-Jazz-Band "Zimbalada", "Pünktchen und Anton" at the Freiburg City Theatre and with musicians like Jens Gebel, Veronica Reiff, Winfried Holzenkamp and others. More and more, he is also standing behind the turntables as DJ Reimann.
