AMN Reviews: Pita – 20190316 Lampo​@​The Graham Foundation, Chicago, IL (2019; Bandcamp)

The immediacy of the Internet age has its pros and cons. We are tempted to react online without thinking carefully, but we are also provided with information and media with a timeliness that was previously not possible. Case in point, Pita (Peter Rehberg who runs the Editions Mego label) performed a 45-minute set in Chicago on Saturday night and yesterday that recording was released.

Brought to town by the Lampo organization, Rehberg used a combination of analog and digital sources to provide dense layers of moody, crackling drones to an overflowing room of listeners. Pulsing, staccato waves combined with twisted feedback, booming low-frequency lines, and scratchy electronics. Sequenced themes occasionally emerge, lurching beneath distorted sonic elements.  Rehberg manipulated these sources in real time, forming a structured improvisation on the spot with samples and effects as his instruments.

As is the often case with this uncategorizable style of music, the focus was on forms, shapes, and textures built organically from strata of sounds. Nonetheless, I was one of several people who left the performance convinced that this was one of the best shows that Lampo had put on in the last several years. And such praise does not come easy given the overall quality of these events.