Bettina Köster

German musician, composer, poet, producer and author.
Born June 15, 1959, in Herford, Germany.
Died March 16, 2026, in Capaccio Paestum, Italy.
She was a leading figure in early West-Berlin's then underground, avant-garde and post-punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, where she was involved in the worlds of punk, art and experimental music. While studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin she joined the underground band DIN A Testbild as a saxophone player in autumn 1978, and she is counted among the loose collective of artists known as the Geniale Dilletanten. In 1979 she co-founded Mania D. with Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel, and in the same year the two opened Eisengrau in Berlin Schöneberg, a combined shop and meeting place that became a focal point for the local avant-garde. In 1981 she co-founded Malaria!, whose track Kaltes Klares Wasser became a lasting scene classic. The British radio presenter John Peel gave her the title Queen Of Noise. With the group she toured Europe and the United States, appearing alongside Siouxsie And The Banshees and The Birthday Party, and in 1982 the band played the opening night of documenta 7 in Kassel. In the late 1980s she moved to New York, where she lived and worked for several years and turned to film. She was later active with Autonervous, performing live in Europe and the United States, before starting a solo career. Her first solo album under her own name, Queen Of Noise, followed in 2009, and Kolonel Silvertop in 2017. She was known for her deep, warm and smoky voice.