Born: December 28, 1942 Primary Instrument: Multi-instrumentalist
Born in Berlin 1942, he began playing the saxophone as a teenager. At that time he claims he had a lot of sounds to penetrate and questions to ask. While officially playing clarinet and violin he had to hide his first saxophone from his parents. Regarding clarinet Mr. Rechtern says, “it was nice of them to concede to that reed but I had to practice saxophone in the forests at night, yet at 28 I was playing in jazz bands that were very quickly ended by police intervention - of course because of loudness, but all musicians agreed - that was not the reason - there was something else”.
Throughout his career he has shown a deep interest in philosophical and historical texts and as with most artists this has influenced his views on art and its politics. His creative abilities were recognized by many musicians including Fritz Novotny of the Reform Art Unit who invited him to join the group for many projects that included Sepp Mitterbauer, Leena Conquest , Paul Fields, Sunny Murray and others. In 1981 Mr. Rechtern founded his own label and foundation L.ABOP. It has mutated from a laboratory of 'Harmonic Basics' to 'Open Products' in the 80's to a forum for improvised action in the 90's. It is inspired by the “open rehearsal black music orchestra” of the University of Wisconsin where he played in the 70's. It is an lsg-Austria/Vienna label carrying his name. There is no sponsor.
After many years of theatre work/stage design and fine arts he found himself self back in and around 1987 making music as before, joining and following other “cultural” paths, joining and looking for different friends and spaces. This made him return to the US to look for just a musical language and thinking and its kind of direct exchange.
Collaborations in the US have included Eric Zinman, Glynis Lomon, Syd Smart, and Weasel Walter.
Benjamin Duboc and Didier Lasserre are among his colleagues in France.
