Bettina Köster, founder of Malaria!, has died. She was also in Mania D. and Autonervous

Bettina Köster, one of the leading figures of the Neue Deutsche Welle, died on 16 March at the age of 66. A singer, songwriter, saxophonist, actress and producer, as well as founder of the pioneering all-female project Malaria!, she was also a member of experimental outfits such as ManiaD and Autonervous.

Her passing marks the end of one of the most radical and influential artistic trajectories to emerge from Berlin between the 1970s and 1980s. 

Her musical journey began in 1978, when she joined Din A Testbild, an avant-garde electronic outfit, as a saxophonist, sharing the Berlin scene with Gudrun Gut. During those years she took part in the "geniale dilettanten" artistic collective, a fluid milieu in which musicians and performers moved rapidly between different projects. With Gut, she also opened Eisengrau, a hybrid space between shop and cultural centre devoted to underground fashion, fanzine distribution and screenings of experimental films, as well as a meeting point for the city's creative scene.

At the height of the Neue Deutsche Welle explosion, Köster and Gut founded Mania D. in 1980, together with Beate Bartel, Karin Luner and Eva-Maria Gößling. The group left behind a single that captured the most experimental strains of post-punk, industrial and musique concrète. At the same time, Köster also recorded with Nachdenkliche Wehrpflichtige and Liebesgier. After a few shows in New York and a live album, the project disbanded. Gößling joined Die Krupps, Bartel went on to collaborate with Einstürzende Neubauten, Liaisons Dangereuses and later Matador, while Köster and Gut launched Malaria! in 1981.

Amid leaden electronic atmospheres, industrial clangs and dissonant sax, Malaria! forged, in the shadow of the Wall, one of the most original experiences of German new wave, as well as what remains, to this day, the most important all-female German band. The credit goes to a sound that combined minimal electronics, jagged lyrics and dark rhythms. Their self-titled debut single came out in 1981 with the participation of percussionist Christine Hahn, who then joined the band permanently. With the arrival of Susanne Kuhnke and Manon Duursma, the group recorded a session for John Peel, who dubbed them, along with Gut and Bartel, "Queens of Noise", helping to draw wider attention to the NDW scene.

In 1982, meanwhile, Köster and Gut collaborated with Gary Asquith (formerly of Rema-Rema) on the Mutabor! project. During the same period, Malaria! released a series of singles destined to become central to their repertoire, including "Kaltes Klares Wasser", "Your Turn To Run" and "How Do You Like My New Dog?", followed by the album "Emotion". Their success took them touring across Europe and the United States, sharing stages with Nina Hagen, The Slits, New Order, The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and John Cale. The experience came to an end in 1984, shortly after the "Beat The Distance" EP.

Having moved to New York, Köster launched a solo career and turned her attention to film, working with Swiss director Isabel Hegner. A brief Malaria! reunion in the early Nineties produced the single "Elation" (1992) and the album "Cheerio" (1993), before the band split again. The group's legacy lives on in the work of countless acts spanning punk, electronic music and gothic.

In the early 2000s, Bettina Köster founded Autonervous with Jessie Evans of Vanishing, releasing a single in 2004 and a self-titled album in 2006. Meanwhile, her film work continued, and in 2009 she released her debut solo record, titled after the nickname John Peel had given her at the start of her career. A series of concerts across Europe and the United States followed, with appearances at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, Germany, and on New York's underground scene, along with a second album, "Kolonel Silvertop", in 2017.

At the time of her death, Bettina Köster was living in Italy, in Capaccio Paestum, in the province of Salerno, where she had resided for some time.

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