Born in 1950 in Zürich city borough 7, Max Lässer has been a professional musician since the age of 22. He began playing the guitar in his teens and founded his first band, Nirvana Unit. His first musical years were based in folk music and Max played with a number of musicians, including Walter Lietha and Bode Band.

In 1978, Max released his first album, Songs, predominantly filled with English songs and his own instrumentals. Walter Lietha and Andreas Vollenweider were among those who contributed. In the mid-eighties, Max was part of Andreas Vollenweider & Friends, touring Europe and America. As well as his various jobs as a guitarist, Max also composed music for documentary films and several childrens' animated films.

In 1985, Max founded his own band: Max Lässer's Ark and released an instrumental album Into The Rainbow. The second album, Earthwalk, did well in the American jazz charts when it was released two years later. Timejump and A Different Kind of Blue followed in 1990 and 1992 respectively.

In 1994, the English record label Melt 2000 invited Max Lässer to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he began working with Madala Kunene. Although originally planned as a solo album, Between was influenced by Max's meetings with local artists in Johannesburg. The 1996 album features members of the Little Ark band as well as many South African guests. A tour followed with Max Lässer, a 12 member band No Nations - 6 of whom were from South Africa, as well as Büne Huber.

The CD Madamax, released in 1998, was a collaboration between Max and Madala Kunene after they were brought together by Melt 2000 founder Robert Trunz in Johannesburg. The two musicians began to jam together and found that their different styles complemented each other well. As Max put it, it was "a perfect marriage". All music on the album was written by Max and Madala, with the latter providing the lyrics. Max was also able to arrange and produce the album himself. A tour in Europe followed in 1999 and 2000. Madamax 2 is now being planned.

In 2002, Max Lässer started the Überlandorchester, bringing together eleven experienced modern folk musicians, including colleagues from his past such as Walter Keise and Hank Schizzoe, and performed at Expo 02 in Biel. It was here that he and Hubert von Goisern performed together for the first time at the "Alpinmusikabend" that Max arranged. Besides appearing with his own band for his Grenzenlos tour, Hubert sang and yodelled together with violinist and yodeller Christine Lauterburg, with Max accompanying them on guitar. The Überlandorchester then went on an extensive tour through Switzerland. A DVD of the tour will be released in March. The Überland project has certainly developed somewhat from the original soundtrack CD Überland for the Schweizer Fernsehen programme Heimweh - Wohin der Win uns trägt (Homesickness - Where the wind carries us). The CD featured many of Max's old musical colleagues and was instrumental but for one track, on which Büne Huber sang.

Then at the beginning of 2003, Hubert von Goisern invited Max to play on his new production: Trad II. Max joined the other musicians on Krippenstein, and will now be performing on stage as part of the band for the 2004 tour.

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