Pita

Operator of the esteemed experimental label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Editions+Mego%22">Editions Mego</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Peter Rehberg</a> mainly used the name Pita for his solo work, which ranged from abrasive glitch and shoegaze-like noise to unsettling drone. Debuting in 1995 with a pair of collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:0LPoOgYmFiQlfP5eXqOR8o">General Magic</a> which sculpted abstract techno tracks from noises generated by refrigerators, Pita released acclaimed full-lengths such as Get Out (1999) and Get Down (2002). He also participated in notable collaborations with Christian Fennesz and <a href="spotify:artist:46urSPEzIrRVqKqciwOq2f">Jim O'Rourke</a> (as <a href="spotify:artist:4Cz3Ul9f6gP2S32o8YEDCQ">Fenn O'Berg</a>), <a href="spotify:artist:6JOZsxwBJZm4bhcEy7gLIU">Stephen O'Malley</a> (as <a href="spotify:artist:4TtqhE9B6Ggi3kA1Q0HNph">KTL</a>), and <a href="spotify:artist:7n9eKttEekbKaDErD29u7l">Tujiko Noriko</a> (DACM), in addition to being a member of electro-acoustic ensemble MIMEO.

<a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Peter Rehberg</a> joined the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mego%22">Mego</a> collective in late 1994, shortly after Ramon Bauer, Peter Meininger, and Andreas Pieper started the Vienna-based label, and eventually ran it. Employing the moniker Pita, <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a> collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:0LPoOgYmFiQlfP5eXqOR8o">General Magic</a> (Bauer and Pieper) for the first release in <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mego%22">Mego</a>'s catalog, the Fridge Trax 12", issued in early 1995. Shortly thereafter, a live album, Live & Final Fridge, found <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a> again collaborating with <a href="spotify:artist:0LPoOgYmFiQlfP5eXqOR8o">General Magic</a>, this time at the Interference Festival in Berlin in July 1995. However, it was <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a>'s Seven Tons for Free album that impressed many and established an esteemed reputation for the producer, who then collaborated with Bauer throughout 1996, resulting in the Faßt full-length for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch+Records%22">Touch Records</a> (the first release in a trilogy that also includes ballt [1999] and passt [2001]). In 1999, Seven Tons for Free was remastered and re-released; it won the Distinction Prize for Digital Musics at Ars Electronica that year, garnering yet more acclaim for <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a>. A follow-up album, Get Out, appeared later in 1999. A split EP with <a href="spotify:artist:5aQa51qekOqNjgMoJMWZyE">Kevin Drumm</a> was released in 2001, and full-length Get Down arrived in 2002.

2004's Get Off appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22H%C3%A4pna%22">Häpna</a>. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mego%22">Mego</a> closed at the end of 2005, and <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a> established <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Editions+Mego%22">Editions Mego</a> in January of 2006 in order to maintain the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mego%22">Mego</a> legacy and issue new recordings. Apart from numerous collaborations and releases under his own name (including 2008's Work for GV 2004-2008), <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a> periodically reactivated the Pita moniker. Limited LP A Bas la Culture Marchande was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22No+Fun+Productions%22">No Fun Productions</a> in 2007, and Colchester (a live collaboration with percussionist <a href="spotify:artist:74GmwSRUlDNdoVmRvlw0lv">Z'ev</a>) was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Editions+Mego%22">Editions Mego</a> in 2008. Mesmer, a cassette of ambient pieces recorded in 1995, was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22the+Tapeworm%22">the Tapeworm</a> in 2010. Fridge Trax Plus, a compilation of Pita's early collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:0LPoOgYmFiQlfP5eXqOR8o">General Magic</a>, appeared in 2015. He resumed releasing solo material with Get In (2016) and Get On arrived three years later. <a href="spotify:artist:7b6tYYd8jqeZfzPFdKsDow">Rehberg</a> died of a heart attack in July of 2021. ~ Jason Birchmeier & Paul Simpson, Rovi