Heinz Riegler can lay claim to a very successful alternative music career, albeit in Australia. In the meantime he has garnered foothold in Austria, where he moves between elegiac sound landscapes and video art, which we find an example of on his new album, “Survey #2”.
It all began with a pair of Doc Martens. It was the end of the 1980’s, and a teenage Heinz Riegler wanted to escape the dreariness of his hometown, at least, as it were, for a few days. It was in London that he landed, and the immense radiance of the pop culture with which London offered him, and with such a force, that instead of vegetating in boring Flachau, he decided rather to clean the toilets at a London Hostel, and exploit the infinitely larger pool of possibilities which London offered, and that for the next five years.
He cut his teeth in London with two Auzies, with whom he became acquainted with at the hostel. They lost their UK Visas at which point a decision was to be made, namely, if Hanz would follow them back to Australia–or not–which he ultimately did. The band formed and was called “Not From There”, and was a typical 90s Pop-Rock crossover band with cutting guitars and the looks to match. People in Australia responded, and he became a media darling especially when he got sent back to Austria because of an expired Visa. By now the Australian media had found a certain kind of affection for the outlaw(s)(since the had all Visa issues), and which ended in the release of “Sich Offnen” in 1998. Sung in mostly German, the song became a hit in Australia and was nominated for an Australian Grammy and a year later the Aria Award, which it was honored with for Best alternative Release, in 1999.
After a few years of the classic album release tour circuit cycle, the trio broke apart in classic rock cliché fashion, and Riegler went on to form new Post-Punk projects, “Nightstick” and “I/03” which also were forays into the experimental music scene where he also cooperated with the visual artist, Lawerence English, with whom he still collaborates with in a variety of artistic projects. It was now a break from Pop and structured music and the beginning of a new phase, which was underscored by openness and interdisciplinary mixtures. His evolution has been dramatic, as he himself describes it, “ Earlier I wanted to knock people’s socks off and scream in their faces. Now I’m most happy presenting a 10 minute film where only very little takes place, and that which does, only in the foreground….”
With his short film, “Motion Portrait #1” Riegler presents an elegant study in time and movement, and the original score he composed, won the jury over and himself the mica Sound-Picture Competition. Following this he recently released “Survey#2” (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) an instrumental album, which is a continuation of his elegiac soundscapes in an acoustic mood. This is a soundtrack without a movie, in which we see the process of an eighty-day P.O.V. from a 2000m high mountain hut, where we are enveloped by, for the most part, days of snow and fog completely cut off from the world.
http://www.heinzriegler.com/