He is (born Paris, 1953) musician and maker of mechanical orchestras, completed his studies in French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1977, and that same year began building music-playing machines. He has worked as musician in bands, and composed music for dance companies. Since 1986 he created several mechanical orchestras, which he has called Mecanium. In his concerts, he always performs with his mechanical instruments.

His main installations apart from ’Mecanium’ include ’Phonologie Portative’ (1996), ’Mécanologie’ (1997), ’Paper Organs’ (2000), ’Musique des Emanglons’ (2001) incollaboration with Robert Wyatt, ’Paper Drums’ (2002), ’Rotary Organ’ (2006), ’Paper Snakes’ (2007), ’Somewhere in the Dark’ (2008) with Robert Wyatt (collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), ’Soul’ (2009) and "Paper Orchestra" (2012). Many recorded works of Pierre Bastien have been released on CD, among them "Mecanoid", "Pop" and

"Machinations" on Rephlex. Throughout the years, Pierre Bastien collaborated, among others, with video artist Pierrick Sorin, film-maker Karel Doing, fashion design company Issey Miyake Inc., instrument inventor Jan Weinfeld, dance companies Dominique Bagouet and Enclave, circus companies Trottola and Jerome Thomas, musicians Jac Berrocal, Pascal Comelade, Lukas Simonis, Alexei Aigi, Steve Arguelles.

He lives in Rotterdam.