Peter Rehberg (29 June 1968 – 22 July 2021), also known as Pita, was a British-Austrian composer of electronic audio works. He was the head of

Editions Mego Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by Peter ...

, which he founded in 2006 as a successor to Mego.

Early life

Rehberg was born in

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

on 29 June 1968. He grew up in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, before relocating to Austria, his father's country of origin.

Career

Rehberg became associated with Mego in the latter part of 1994. He consequently released his first single early the following year, which was also the first release in the record label's catalogue. He followed this up with his debut album titled ''Seven Tons for Free'' in 1996, released under the name Pita. Three years later, Rehberg received

Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria ...

Distinction Award for Digital Musics, alongside

Christian Fennesz Christian Fennesz (born 25 December 1962) is an Austrian producer and guitarist active in electronic music since the 1990s, often credited mononymously as Fennesz. His work utilizes guitar and laptop computers to blend melody with treated samp ...

and the label itself. Rehberg cooperated with various musicians such as

Mika Vainio Mika Tapio Vainio (May 15, 1963 – April 12, 2017) was a Finnish electronic musician. He was best known as a member of Pan Sonic. In addition to his real name, he recorded under the aliases Ø, Kentolevi, Philus, and Tekonivel. He has worked w ...

Charlemagne Palestine Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born August 15, 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initia ...

and Oren Ambarchi. He produced music with Ramon Bauer starting in 1997 as Rehberg & Bauer. After Mego folded in 2005, Rehberg revived the label the following year as

. He also collaborated with

Stephen O'Malley Stephen O'Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA; born July 15, 1974) is an American guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone metal, doom metal, and expe ...

starting in 2006, releasing six drone doom albums as KTL. With

Fennesz Christian Fennesz (born 25 December 1962) is an Austrian producer and guitarist active in electronic music since the 1990s, often credited mononymously as Fennesz. His work utilizes guitar and laptop computers to blend melody with treated samp ...

and Jim O'Rourke, he founded the project

Fenn O'Berg Fenn O'Berg was an improvisational computer music trio made up of members Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg and Jim O'Rourke. Their existence began with a surprise appearance at the Nickelsdorf Festival in 1997. This was followed by extensive i ...

. Rehberg released ''A Bas la Culture Marchande'' in 2007, followed by the live collaboration ''Colchester'' (2008) and the cassette ''Mesmer'' (2010). He started an archival project in 2012 called Recollection GRM. It reissued music by the

Groupe de Recherches Musicales A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...

collective, including by

Pierre Schaeffer Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His inno ...

, Bernard Parmegiani,

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

, and Beatriz Ferreyra. In an interview conducted in 2016, Rehberg stated that he did not want to peddle music "in its own little box", which he felt was the norm at present. Describing his impression regarding

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

, he believed that "dissonance and resonance have to co-exist for the other to work". François Bonnet, who collaborated with Rehberg on Recollection GRM, felt that his music came to be more dense as his career progressed. He described how it retained its "radical and bold" character, while becoming "deeper, more ambivalent, more moving".

Personal life

Rehberg was in a domestic partnership with Laura Siegmund until his death. He was previously in a relationship with Isabelle Piechaczyk, with whom he had one child. Rehberg died on 22 July 2021. He was 53, and had suffered a heart attack prior to his death.

Selected discography

* (1995) General Magic & Pita: ''Fridge Trax'' 12" (Mego) * (1996) Pita: ''Seven Tons For Free'' CD (Mego) * (1996) General Magic & Pita: ''Live & Final Fridge'' LP/CD (Source) * (1997) Rehberg & Bauer: ''faßt'' CD (Touch) * (1999) Rehberg & Bauer: ''ballt'' CD (Touch) * (1999) Pita: ''Get Out'' CD (Mego) * (1999)

O'Rourke O'Rourke () is an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Leitrim. The family were the historic rulers of Breifne and later West Breifne until the 17th century. The O'Rourke Clan Chief was at odds with the O'Reilly Chie ...

/Rehberg: ''The Magic Sound Of Fenn O'Berg'' CD (Mego) *(2002) Fennesz/O'Rourke/Rehberg: ''The Return of Fenn O'Berg'' CD (Mego) * (2001) Rehberg & Bauer: ''passt'' CD (Touch) * (2002) Pita: ''Get Down'' LP (Mego) * (2002) DACM: ''Showroom Dummies'' CD (Mego) * (2002) Fennesz/O'Rourke/Rehberg: ''The Return Of Fenn O’Berg'' CD/LP (Mego) * (2004) Pita: ''Get Off'' (Häpna) * (2007) Pita: ''A Bas la Culture Marchande '' (No Fun Productions) * (2007) KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg): ''KTL2'' (Editions Mego) * (2007) KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg): ''KTL3'' (Or) * (2007) R/S (Rehberg/Schmickler): ''One '' (Erstwhile) * (2007) KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg): ''Live In Krems'' (Editions Mego) * (2008) Pita: ''Get Out (Editions Mego Version) '' (Editions Mego) * (2008)

Z'EV Z'EV (born Stefan Joel Weisser, February 8, 1951 – December 16, 2017) was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of indu ...

vs PITA: ''Colchester'' (Editions Mego) * (2008) Peter Rehberg: ''Work For GV 2004–2008'' (Editions Mego) * (2009) KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg): ''IV'' (Editions Mego) * (2011) R/S: ''USA'' (PAN) * (2016) Pita: ''Get In'' CD (Editions Mego) * (2019) Pita: ''Get On'' CD (Editions Mego) * (2020) KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg): ''VII'' (Editions Mego) * (2022) Peter Rehberg: ''At GRM'' (Portraits GRM) * (2025) Peter Rehberg: ''Liminal States'' (Editions Mego)

References

External links

Editions Mego website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rehberg, Peter 1968 births 2021 deaths Free improvisation British experimental musicians Electroacoustic improvisation People from Tottenham Musicians from St Albans Computer music