Pita

by Jason Birchmeier   One of the first artists to explore the style of laptop techno eventually tagged as glitch, producer Peter Rehberg joined the Mego collective in late 1994, shortly after Ramon Bauer, Peter Meininger, and Andreas Pieper started the Vienna-based label. Employing the moniker Pita, Rehberg collaborated with General Magic (Bauer and Pieper) for the first release in Megos catalog, the Fridge Trax 12, released in early 1995. Rehbergs first solo release as Pita came in 1996, the Seven Tons for Free full-length (Mego 9). Shortly after, a live album, Live & Final Fridge, found Rehberg again collaborating with General Magic, this time at the Interference Festival in Berlin in July 1995. However, it was Rehbergs 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 Touch Records (the first release in a trilogy that also includes ballt [1999] and passt [2001]). In 1999, Rehbergs Pita full-length, Seven Tons for Free, was remastered and re-released; it won the Distinction Prize for Digital Musics at Ars Electronica 1999, garnering yet more acclaim for Rehberg. He capitalized on the renewed interest in his work as Pita by releasing a follow-up album later on that year, Get Out (Mego 29). In subsequent years, Rehberg continued producing, though primarily as himself or in collaboration settings with the likes of Christian Fennesz, Jim ORourke, and Peter Rehberg (The Magic Sound of Fenn OBerg [Mego 31]) rather than as Pita. Nonetheless, Seven Tons for Free remained his most well-known work.