From the age of six I learnt the recorder
and from the age of eight the piano. In the following years many far-reaching
experiences made me fall deeper into the field of music. These experiences
all had the same meaning as Thomas Bernhard said “I want to go in
the opposite direction.”
There must be something else that is loads more fun and more intensive
than the cramming in of folklorist- classical piano etudes, preliminary
stage sonatinen, waltz, polka, etc., etc...
 |
From the middle of the sixties on my journey in the opposite direction I was met by various things: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Coltrane, Rashaan Roland Kirk, John Surman, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Free jazz, Radio Luxembourg, the Musikbox with André Heller and Wolfgang Hübsch, Sgt. Pepper and the “White Album”, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, The Cream, Stevie Winwood, the album “Blues News” in white (!) vinyl, the Valentine Suite from Colosseum and and and … |
So the sixties passed and the seventies began on a very sad note; that was the death of one of my biggest heroes, namely Jimi Hendrix. Since that day, the 18th September has been marked black in my calendar.
| Matriculation and the beginning of my studies in mathematics and physics followed, but the most important thing in my life was and remained music. I played in many bands and projects, visited “swinging” London very often, to remain technically up to date, and it became more and more apparent- I want to live from and with music. In 1978 I went to Salzburg to study, but right from the start I saw my university courses as developing my personality and not educating myself. |  London, Carnaby Street, 1977 |
Recording Studio:
Upon returning to Linz after having successfully completed my studies
of geography and Italian the first affordable sequence programmes had
just come onto the market. The software from “Jellinghouse”
and “Steinberg” together with the Commodore – computer
and the magical word MIDI produced a new freedom for creative musicians.
The programmes quickly developed further and so the change to an Atari-
computer soon took place. In conjunction with a Fostex-8-channel machine
the first recordings became reality – the SOUNDDESIGN recording
studio opened on an area of 12m² in Linz- Urfahr in 1983.
After the first productions were successful not only on regional programmes
but also on national radio Ö3 with good to partly very good entries,
a second studio in the south of Linz was set up in 1987. With 40m²
production room and 50m² recording room the requirements were met
not only for solo artists but also for bands from the pop, rock and jazz
sector.
In 1989 the MIDI – studio moved to St.Marien for five years , 20
km south west of Linz, and eventually was integrated in the larger studio.
To date, about 300 albums, advertising music in every form, sound tracks for presentations and image films, and many more have been produced. Consequently the recording studio belongs to the heart of SOUNDDESIGN AUSTRIA.
PG Records:
In 1985 PG Records, named after the initials of the founder Peter Guschelbauer, was established as a reaction to the general inactivity of the music industry – regional, local artists had almost no chance of being produced by a major label. In this way small, independent firms had the chance to publish good artists on their label.
Most of the bands and soloists who were produced in their own recording
studios were not only sold in Austria, but could also be exported or licensed
to the following European and Asian countries:
Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland,
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia.
Recording Distribution:
The recording distributor SOUNDDESIGN AUSTRIA was founded in 1988, primarily
to put their own products onto the market. The regular participation in
national and international music fairs, above all the MIDEM in Cannes
and the POPKOMM in Cologne helped the distribution catalogue to expand
very fast.
After visiting the MIDEM Asia in Hong Kong three times as well as the
MIDEM Latina in Miami, good contacts were made especially in the Asian
countries.
A well chosen programme of pop, rock, jazz, classical and world music quickly opened the doors in the speciality shops and markets. The list of titles in the catalogue quickly rose to over 15,000.
In times of general specialising and concentrating on the central business SOUNDDESIGN AUSTRIA developed into specialists for jazz, world music, classical and a few chosen national products from the year 2000.