Heinz Riegler

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) is out now via A...

Fri, 04 May 2012 06:36:00 +1000

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) is out now via A Guide To Saints. Available now from the Room40 store. (purchase of cassette comes with immediate download)… Enjoy.

Made a mixtape. It’s being featured over at International...

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:28:00 +1000

Made a mixtape. It’s being featured over at International Tapes. Enjoy.

Just got the go-ahead for a collaborative project with...

Wed, 02 May 2012 16:40:00 +1000

Just got the go-ahead for a collaborative project with Australian painter Allyson Reynolds. Will be in Australia later this year to compose a score for her new works on canvas. The outcome of the collaboration will be exhibited in early 2013 with the musical score issued on a special edition of vinyl. See you on the other side.

Some sounds from forthcoming recording.

Tue, 01 May 2012 18:27:00 +1000

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) is available now as...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:38:00 +1000

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) is available now as limited edition of 100 hand-printed cassettes with immediate digital download.

For those who don’t know, I made the record while I was snowed in for 80 days up in the Austrian alps last year. Here’s some writing regarding the making of the thing. It is best read in a Sir David Attenborough style voice.

Notes From The Mountain

Colour drains way from the alps at the onset of winter, especially when living just a few hundred meters below the tree-line at 1800 meters above sea level. There, all the human eye is really left to observe are two, maybe three tones of colour. On overcast days, the white of snow covers almost everything in sight, bar the spaces of dark browns and greys made up from the bare mountains and the dormant fauna. Only when the cloud cover is lifted, a striking blue is added to the composition. Surrounded by this duo-tone landscape, observations find new purpose and meaning. Attention is honed on clouds and fog of varying consistency moving through space, snow falling with changing intensity and direction, as well as the peculiar transformation of light that happens throughout the course of each day. Time begins to slow and a sharpened type of cognisance sets in – even to the point of noticing small changes in the position of the rising and setting of sun and moon.

Ears also attune to the new surrounds and they become very eager for any type of sound in what is a mostly muted environment. Most animals are hibernating or too cold to expend energy on making noise, and especially on still days, there is very little ambient sound for your ears to pick up upon at first. Eventually though, the ears become calibrated and begin to hear all kinds of things: the distant creaking of a branch under the weight of snow, the faraway trickle of a spring, and on warmer days, you easily hear a fly – having hedged in anticipation of spring – buzzing toward you from kilometres away. You can hear snowflakes falling and hitting the ground…. well, maybe not so much hitting the ground, more like fusing with it. And the wind… the multitude of sounds that the air moving through those mountains will generate is quite a thrill, providing random performances of great beauty.

So all of this unleashed nature began flowing into the musical sketches that I made everyday. More and more I found myself abandoning the original reason for moving to the cabin. (I had intended to head up there and finish an album of songs based in a more traditional style – a work I had started a few years earlier in Australia). But instead, slow and simple movements of mostly minimal chord progressions started to dominate my days. Guitar drones interpreting cloud patterns, meditations on the full moon’s light hitting the frozen surface as well as random fragments of sound arrived daily – like gifts presented by a muse, namely solitude.

The absence of human contact began to impact. Time not just slowed, but during a period that is probably best described as a manic episode, time actually seemed to evaporate and cave in on itself. Best illustrated perhaps by the fact that a moment occurred where I became totally disoriented about when I had last slept or eaten. I still don’t know whether it was ten, twenty or seventy hours. No idea. All I know is that when I realised, I was sitting there with the guitar working on a version of Elvis Presley’s ‘All Shook Up’. I did go to sleep not long after that.

So anyway, that’s a small glimpse into how gigabyte after gigabyte of data was being written to the hard drives during those months in the mountains. The days then got longer and the snow slowly gave way to a breathtaking awakening and transition. And as spring arrived, eighty days after moving to the cabin, I packed my stuff and reluctantly left the place behind.

Some months after coming down from the mountain, Lawrence English messaged me about a new imprint he was starting and whether I may have something to contribute. I remember the subject line in the email read ‘Cassette Diaries’, which immediately made me wonder that perhaps some of the work I’d done up in the cabin may suit Lawrence’s brief. So I went through the hard drives, trawled through the vast amount of audio, and picked thirteen ideas – tried to give it some shape; and now here it is.

Maybe you’ll dig. Thanks for reading.

Considering to build an apparatus in order to mount this vanilla...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:28:29 +1000

Considering to build an apparatus in order to mount this vanilla bean permanently to my face.

Preview of hand printed cassette edition.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:08:18 +1000

Preview of hand printed cassette edition.

Seeing that the recording coming out soon was made entirely up...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:20:00 +1000

Seeing that the recording coming out soon was made entirely up in the mountains, it seems reasonable that I remind you of some of the weirdness that takes place when spending 80 days alone at 1800 meters above sea level during the alpine winter.

Everyone needs friends. Here’s who I hung out with during the early months of 2011.

A photograph that nicely sets up all the work that will come out...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:03:00 +1000

A photograph that nicely sets up all the work that will come out in 2012. Thanks to Ana Rita Marques for taking it.

Lines In The Sky over Flachau.

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:04:00 +1000

Lines In The Sky over Flachau.

Just in case you haven’t heard this group before, meet the...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:19:00 +1000

Just in case you haven’t heard this group before, meet the mighty Harmony. I’m yet to see them play in person as Tom put the group together sometime after I left Australia. However, the recording they made last year is right up there with my favorite things to listen to, especially on a bleak Sunday afternoon such as today. The vinyl is long sold out, but you can still get the digital version here among other places. (Tom also plays guitar on a song off a forthcoming record of mine, and damnit - he really knows his stuff - very happy to have him on there!)

Here’s a short-film animation that I sound-tracked for TD...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:07:00 +1000

Here’s a short-film animation that I sound-tracked for TD Architects last month. Three minutes of imagining what might happen when a disgruntled district of Rotterdam severs ties with its hometown and takes journey around the world.

Debut screening happened a few days ago at the WIJkonomie Tarwewijk Symposium held at the Netherlands Architecture Institute. It is produced by TD Architects for for WIJkonomie Tarwewijk. The project is by Droog in partnership with Kosmopolis Rotterdam, Jan Konings and the Netherlands Architecture Institute and is supported by DOEN Foundation. The film will screen everyday in Rotterdam over the next month or so. More info on the overall project here.

John Cage Centennial Exhibition at Vienna’s...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:50:47 +1000

John Cage Centennial Exhibition at Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier is definitely worth checking out.

Wrap up of -20º Cinema

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:51:00 +1000

In a collaboration between TD Architects and myself, a short film event titled -20º Cinema was held in Flachau, Austria on Feb 4. Initially conceived as an excuse to have a party, it quickly turned into a small film fest of kinds, featuring an international selection of works. [Full program notes and credits here.] Below are some images depicting the construction of the space as well as a few shots from the night.

^ Construction took place roughly over a week, doing a few hours work every other day.

^ Taken on the morning of the event, having realized that screen size needed to be increased to 6x4 meters.

^ Overlooking the finished site.

^ Again overlooking the site, this time taken during the event with the audience watching Paul W Rankin’s BNE 6:07 AM.

^ Theo Deutinger introducing the first block of films. (The projection of the fireplace looked great, though we don’t think it made any real difference in anyone’s perception of the -18º celsius alpine evening)

^ Crowd transfixed. (Or maybe frozen?)

^ Debut screening of The Way We Are, a short film/animation created by TD Architects for Open House Rotterdam. More about this particular project here.

^ During the screening of Yorgos Rimenidis’ Urbanstorr.

^ Intermission - mainly spent drinking mulled wine.

^ During the screening of Lawrence English’s Ghost Towns.

^ During the screening of Motion Portrait #1.

The night would not have been possible without the help of the following. Thank you!

Ana Rita Marques
Christian Deutinger
David Freudenthaler
Elisa Mante
Hartwig Reiter
Heinz Ulfila Riegler
Luca Deutinger
Marlene Deutinger
Monique Leenders
Stefanos Filippas
Vitor Mota

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) will be out on the...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:31:00 +1000

Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) will be out on the 1st of May this year through Lawrence English’s brand new A Guide To Saints imprint. Made in early 2011, it’s a collection of sounds and ideas that appeared during 80 days spent in a wooden cabin high up in the Austrian Alps. A mostly instrumental audio postcard that transcribes (amongst other things) the sensations of extreme isolation and freedom.

Manifested in tonal experiments and simple movements of minimal chord progressions, it features guitar drones interpreting cloud patterns, meditations on the full moon’s light shimmering on frozen surfaces – as well as randomly fragmented expressions of sound.

All of it wrapped and illuminated by the duo-tone of deep alpine winter, Survey #2 contains 13 pieces of music, intertwined to make a 34 minute edition of sound.

Out via A Guide to Saints on May 1st 2012.

Written and recorded by Heinz Riegler.
All Instruments by Heinz Riegler.
Mastering by Lawrence English at Room 40.
Cover art by Matthieu Rynkiewicz & Heinz Riegler.
Cassette cover art print: Matthew Deasy.

As part of a collaboration with TD Architects, we’ll be...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:57:03 +1000

As part of a collaboration with TD Architects, we’ll be screening a selection of short films this Saturday evening. If you live in central Europe, come and join us. Maybe bring some blankets and hot drinks.

Morning walk after a night of heavy snowfall. Broadcast - Tears...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +1000

Morning walk after a night of heavy snowfall. Broadcast - Tears in the Typing Pool came on the headphones as I turned that corner. Sad and beautiful all at once. (Taken with instagram)

Early morning Salzburg.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:02:00 +1000

Early morning Salzburg.

A quick 60 second edit documenting the practice of artificial...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:10:00 +1000

A quick 60 second edit documenting the practice of artificial snow-making in my hometown of Flachau.

Last month Bradford Bailey, John Chantler, Carina Thorén and I...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:33:00 +1000

Last month Bradford Bailey, John Chantler, Carina Thorén and I performed as part of Lawrence English’s Lonely Women’s Club. Here’s a little clip from that night at Cafe Oto - blissing out to the shimmering tones…