Editions MEGO 20th AnniversaryEditions MEGO 20th Anniversary

Live: Fennesz / O’Rourke Pita Klara Lewis [First performance in Japan] ibitsu Artist Information: Christian Fennesz  Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. "Imagine the electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language." - (City Newspaper, USA). His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, an inherent naturalism permeating each piece. [http://www.fennesz.com](http://www.fennesz.com) Jim O'Rourke  Photo by Ujin Matsuo Born 1969 in Chicago. O’Rourke encountered the music of Derek Bailey as youngster and began visiting him in London at the age of 13. Eyes opened to the power of improvisational guitar, he released several of his own highly experimental works and has worked closely with John Fahey and Loren Mazzacane Connors. During his long association with the Chicago experimental and improv scene O’Rourke participated in several bands and projects including Gastr Del Sol and Loose Fur. His work with Takehisa Kosugi music director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as well as Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, Christian Wolff and others built bridges between contemporary and popular music. O’Rourke’s release of landmark albums Bad Timing and Happy Days in 1997 and Eureka in 1999 garnered much attention. From 1999 to 2005 he was a member of Sonic Youth, playing bass, guitar and synthesizer as well as recording and mixing the band. In 2004 he won a Grammy Award for his production of Wilco’s A Ghost is Born. O’Rourke has also earned a loyal following for his participation in numerous albums by various artists around the world. He has a deep knowledge of Japanese culture and currently lives in Tokyo. Some of his many production credits in Japan include Quruli, Kahimi Karie, and Eiko Ishibashi. He also continues to be a consummate collaborator, working with Akira Sakata, Merzbow, Yoshihide Otomo, Seiichi Yamamoto, Boredoms and others. His recordings of Toru Takemitsu’s Corona for pianists Tokyo Realization was awarded the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival Award for Excellence in 2006. He has also scored films by Werner Herzog, Olivier Assayas, Shinji Aoyama, Koji Wakamatsu and others. His own short films have been part of the 2004 and 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 2005 Rotterdam Film Festival. O'Rourke is a diverse and powerful artist. Always searching, his borderless activity goes beyond the common labels Alternative, Post-rock, Experimental-pop, Film music, Free music, Jazz, Americana, Contemporary music and continues to defly classification. [http://editionsmego.com/releases/old-news/](http://editionsmego.com/releases/old-news/) Pita  Photo by Magdalena Blaszczuk PITA is the pseudonym of Editions Mego founder Peter Rehberg. The London native, since decades residing in Vienna, began his career 20 years ago when the aesthetic possibilites of so-called Laptop music were just about to be discovered. PITA started working with computers since then and is internationally perceived as one of the pioneers of synthetic music. His musical background is to be found in Noise, Ambient and Techno, as well as early electroacoustics. PITA ushers now the next phase of his sonic experimentation, returning as a solo act after almost ten years of silence. His approach to music hasn't changed much though – it's the ongoing search of a radical maniac that is driving us to the shores of experimental electronics, maybe best to be described as visceral synthesis, fshing in the ambient depths of techno. He is fusing distorted electricity with abstract beat patterns and glitches to some form of extreme computer music, exploring the outskirts of frequency range and pays attention to a sonic momentum. Even though he took a break as a solo musician, Rehberg never stopped his sonic exploration. Over the last years he was focussing on his collaborative work, as in Fenn’O’Berg (w/ Jim O’Rourke and Christian Fennesz), KTL (w/ Sunn O)))s Stephen O'Malley), R/S (w/ Marcus Schmickler), or his latest project Shampoo Boy (w/ Christina Nemec and Christian Schachinger). These musical collaborations are completed by his longtime cooperation with the French theatre director Giséle Vienne, whose opulent pieces are accompanied by Rehberg's compositions. PITA has produced over a dozen albums, covering an astonishing variety of experimental electronic styles, LPs like the Get Out / Get Down / Get Of trilogy have received broad international critical acclaim and were released on such labels as Mego, Touch, Häpna etc. He played various international festivals, like SONAR, All Tomorrows Parties, CTM Berlin, MUTEK and Donaufestival. As head of the infuential Editions Mego family of labels, he has released albums by internationally renowned artists like Fennesz, Kevin Drumm, Emeralds, Florian Hecker, Bernard Parmegiani, Russell Haswell, KTL, Akos Rozmann, Donato Dozzy, Bill Orcutt, Mark Fell and many more. "One of the most perceptive and mercurial sound artists at work today." (Nick Cain, The Wire) [editionsmego.com/artist/pita](http://editionsmego.com/artist/pita) Klara Lewis  Photo by Hampus Hogberg Klara Lewis is a Swedish composer born 1993. Her critically acclaimed debut album Ett was released by Viennese record label Editions Mego in 2014. “[...] Ett is the work of a gifted and thoughtful sound sculptress, who combines found sounds, field recordings and electronic textures to create beguiling and resonant works that operate on all manner of levels.” (Joseph Burnett, The Quietus) “The way [Lewis] manipulates these recordings of her own surroundings is expressive and intuitive, and the music sparkles with personality despite its sparseness.” (Rory Gibb, The Wire) Lewis is studying her second year of a bachelor degree in Audio-visual Production. Lewis is currently collaborating with Simon Fisher Turner and Rainier Lericolais. [klaralewis.com](http://klaralewis.com) [soundcloud.com/klara-lewis](http://www.soundcloud.com/klara-lewis) ibitsu  Photo by Yoh Sugiyama [editionsmego.com/artist/ibitsu](http://editionsmego.com/artist/ibitsu)