I am still shocked by the news of Pita’s untimely death. The experimental music world loses a great human being. I won’t claim to have known Peter Rehberg but was fortunate enough having worked with him over the past decades. Our first personal meeting was by introduction of Mike Harding from Touch I believe but I am not sure. The first time we really worked together was when I organized a Fenn O’Berg show in Münster in the second half of the 1990s. Pita and Fennesz stayed at my student flat, the show was great of course. The last time was when I invited the MEGO20 circus to Cologne in 2015. This was also the last time I saw him, I believe. He played a very dense and rhythmic modular solo gig that night which was surprising and refreshing. The muddy photo is from that show.
It’s unbelievable that Pita is gone, only at 53! I will remember him as a funny, generous, grumpy, and loyal man. He was so instrumental for many fellow artists. The amount of energy he devoted to helping other artists in getting their music heard was incredible. The discontinuation of editionsMEGO (I am guessing!) will leave a huge gap, it will be the end of an era. As an image, Pita will forever be the fast speaking, red wine loving, energetic human form in my mind….
I remember one night now very clearly as I think of Pita. In 1998, Stockholm was cultural capital of Europe and the MS Stubnitz boat was host to a multitide of performances from the noise and electronic music world (thanks mostly to Mikael, Benny and Marten, I think). I stayed there for a whole week, DJing and hanging around as a fanboy. Of course, there was a MEGO evening, had to be. The night before we watched Germany losing to Croatia in the world cup together aboard the Stubnitz. Pita was just hilarious in how he commented the game, how pleasantly „anti-Germany“ his boos and groans were and how we ended up talking the night about football. He explained the most peculiar MEGO release „Anton Polster, Du bist leiwand!“ to me and how bad the state of affairs in football was in Austria.
PITA, thank you for E V E R Y T H I N G!
I hope this is not too kitschy. I just felt I had to write something.
Love from Cologne.
Zipo/Till Kniola