Fennesz

by Sean Cooper
Vienna-based guitarist Christian Fennesz is one of the citys many artists associated with the noted Mego label, which releases mostly freeform ambient and experimental electronica. Similar in some respects to the work of Seefeel or Experimental Audio Research, Fenneszs six-string soundscapes are both darker than the former and more complex and intricate than the latter, combining dense, multilayered sheets of treated guitar and synth with thin, odd-metered electronic percussion and engaging sampler work. A former member of Austrian underground experimental rock group Maische, Fennesz has also collaborated with Mego artist Peter Pita Rehberg on his Seven Tons for Free CD, as well as performed ensemble pieces for conceptual and multimedia art installation. His first solo work for Mego, the Instrument EP, was released in 1996, and featured four tracks of stunning, uncompromised ambient and electro-acoustic, combining elements of experimental electro/techno with heavily treated guitar and electronics. Hotel Paral.lel followed in 1997, and three years later Fennesz returned with Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56 37 Minus Sixteen Degrees 51 08 and Music for an Isolation Tank. Endless Summer, released in 2000, brought him back to the Mego fold.