for those, who might be interested…..

music

. everything by Frank Zappa - a truly brilliant genius and visionary composer of the 20th century - still way ahead of his time - the personification of the term “anarchist”   in the best possible sense - a unique free thinker, non conformist and the most serious of all perfectionists! 

His music contains everything, that I like, and keeps me interrested for 30+ years.... creative intelligence, diversity, virtuosity, humor, satire - just beautyful, inspiring and unpredictable. Unfortunately he died much too soon - I can hardly imagine, what he would be doing today, utilizing the advanced tools and possibilities of our time...

But he left about 60 albums - that are all worth to be heard, and learn from - that means you can listen to a new f.z. album every day for two month in a row...

And he always led the best rehearsed bands - especially the 74´ Band  featuring Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson, Tom and Bruce Fowler is probably my all time favourite band - just amazing what they could do...

He´s the only one to appear in each of my categories.... simply because there´s no one else like him, and I love his work, attitude, anarchism & humor so much!!!

. everything by Joni Mitchell - probably the most brilliant singer/songwriter/poet, ever.... and a unique acoustic guitarist

. every single note played by Jeff Beck - the most brilliant electric guitarist...

. most stuff by Pink Floyd & David Gilmour

. Peter Gabriel & the PG/Genesis aera

. Radiohead & Thom Yorke

. A perfect circle & Tool

. Igor Stravinsky

. Olivier Messiaen

. Bela´Bartok

. Edgard Varese´

. James Blake, Delilah, oh Land

. Me´Shell N´degeocello

. Screaming headless torsos

. Imogen Heap

. Tori Amos

. Bill Frisell

. Weather Report & joe Zawinul

. Jaco Pastorius

. Miles Davis Quintett

. Bjoerk

. Eurythmics/Annie Lennox/Dave Stewart

. u2

. Led Zeppelin

. Charles Mingus

. Daniel Lanois

. John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu Orchestra

. Shakti

. Return to forever

. Steely Dan

. Tribal Tech & Scott Henderson

. Squarepusher, Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Feist, Bon Iver, Cassandra Wilson, Elliott Smith, King Crimson, Motoerhead, Portishead, Police/Sting, Queensryche, Queen, Rage against the machine, Seal, Thin Lizzy, Talking Heads, Toto, Journey, , Blackroc, Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Wayne Shorter Quartett, Mike Stern, Thelonious Monk, Tony Williams Lifetime, VSOP Quintett, Cream & Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix, Ravi Shankar, Neville Brothers, Joss Stone, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits & many, many more……

guitar players

1. jeff beck

2. jeff beck

3. jeff beck 

On my 14th birthday, I’ve been invited to a friends house, he had the album “Jeff Beck Live with the Jan Hammer Group” - I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the noises this dude made with his guitar were fantastic, overwhelming!

That’s when I fell in love with Jeff Beck’s playing - a love affair that continues to this day… I know, this is a very personal point of view, but this one guy has absolutely everything, that I´m looking for in a truly inspiring guitarist - uniqueness, taste, attitude, sound, phrasing - always playing on the edge, taking risks, permanently developing and still growing, over a career, that lasts for more than 5 decades... when j.b. has a good day, there´s no one like him, and no one can even come close!! Here goes my deepest, heartfelt admiration, respect & gratitude for continuing inspiration and pure listening joy - to the greatest electric guitar player, ever!!! 

. Allan Holdsworth: 

back in the 80´s he took the guitar to the next dimension, and played the most beautyful, strange, interesting voicings and superlegato lines.... When I first heard his music, I thought that he must be an alien, because it was so different from anything else, I ever heard before... Still on the cutting edge and untouched in many ways.

. David Gilmour: 

a blues rock master of unique taste, sound and phrasing, who can be recognised after playing two notes, in what ever context he might appear. When I was a kid, David was my first hero, I wanted to be like him - I started playing electric guitar (of course a black strat copy), because I loved the sound he created so much!! (then I naively thought, all one needed to do that, was a black strat with white pickups, hiwatt amp, and of course - long hair....), learned each note that he played by heart, but never came close...

. Alex Machacek: 

my old friend and definitely one of the very best and rhythmically advanced fusion guitarists on planet earth (this term is absolutely not meant to sound cheap, because in my point of view he´s actually much more than that) - extremely creative, fluid and daring to be different! Also a fine, very advanced f.z.-style composer that always has a few surprises and musical left turns left in his pocket... To me, he´s the one, who took a.h´s work to the next level!

. Michael Landau: 

after hearing his playing on countless records - I finally had the unbelievable pleasure to watch him perform his own music, with his trio. This is not just a man & his guitar - it´s much more, like a perfect symbiosis of the two, morphed to an somewhat amorphous creature to perform a higher musical task. He sounds life even more amazing, than on record, and his playing is simply outstanding. Always risky and thrilling, but radiating maximum security at the same time, hyper dynamic and tasteful, but most important: he steadfastly always seems to make the right musical decisions - a true master of his art!!! I´d say he´s probably the best rock guitar player alive, maybe Jimmy Hendrix would play like him, if he´d had the time to develop his style over the last three decades.....

. Wayne Krantz: 

an awesome, very unique, bold and creative guitar player and composer. Very advanced, inventive and never boring!! Hard to describe with words, what he does... my recommendation - go out and hear him play, if you get a chance!

. Scott Henderson: 

A few years ago, I had the remarkable pleasure, to stand only a few meters away from his amp in a small club in LA, so I could feel the vibration of the sound waves and observe his hands simultaneously - otherwise it would have been hard to believe, what I heard... If you catch him on a good day, he´s one of the very best, there is...

. Andy Timmons: 

. Joe Satriani: 

. Conrad Schrenk: 

also an old friend of mine from vienna, fantastic guitarist and composer/arranger - in my opinion  probably one of the absolutely most underrated/unknown musicians on the planet - shit happens! I had the privillege to work a lot with him, so I might be one of the very few persons, who really know, what he´s actually capable to do....

. John McLaughlin

. Gary Moore

. Steve Morse

. Frank Zappa

. Jimmy Page

. Richie Blackmore

. Edward Van Halen

. David Fiuczynski

. Guthrie Govan

. Tuck Andress

. The Edge

. Bill Frisell

. Pat Metheny

. Steve Lukather

. Danny Gatton

. Bernhard Locker - another brilliant, quite unknown guitar player from vienna....

books

In my restless quest for truth, development, knowledge, wisdom, and the reason for being - I spent a lot of time, reading way too many books. Unfortunately, only very few of them or even just small parts were worth the time spent on.... Often there´s endless words, where the essence could be put in a few sentences - that makes advance by reading a very slow and sometimes frustrating process - exept if you´re also looking for the beauty of words, not just pure information.

If I could choose only one book to keep, it would be definitely:

Frank Zappa: in his own words The real f.z-book! A festival for connoisseurs of diametral intelligence, satire and bizarre humour... Anarchy revealed, NO political correctness in any way - name the things the way, they are - YES!!! No matter how depressed I ever might be - this book always forces a smile out of me...

Friedrich Nietzsche: Menschliches und allzu menschliches - one of the very few books that left absolutely no question marks for me... and to me F.N. is the absolute master of the german language.

Also sprach Zarathustra, by the same genius....

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: The story of my experiments with truth - the grandmaster of fearless advance in search of truth and will-power. A most brilliant human being, and maybe the only one, ever, who defined, how a politician should stand up for human rights.

Albert Einstein: Mein Weltbild - a great philosopher and humanist, that most people only know as a brilliant scientist, who found the formula e=mc2. A master in nailing the most complex things with the most simple words... When I read this book for the first time (many more followed), I was a quite ignorant young dude - and it changed my life, forever!

Baruch de Spinoza: Die Ethik - the birth of "pantheism" written during the burning “Inquisition” - an incomparable act of braveness

Heinrich Boell: Ansichten eines clowns - the most beautyful study of an “non-conformist” artist (equipped with some special features, like "smelling" through the telephone) who suffers from monogamy  - but won´t bend down - not even, if the price is losing everything that´s worth living...

Hermann Hesse: Der Steppenwolf - as it turns out, unfortunately this book seems to be my autobiography...

Stephen Hawking: A brief history of time - I always loved physics - thanks to Mr Felix Zawischa, who was a really brilliant teacher, due to his enthusiasm for his topic - this man could talk about - let´s say the "theory of relativity", as if it was the most beautyful, obvious thing on planet earth - and in a way that was far more thrilling, than any thriller... and especially Stepen Hawking´s view - a remarkable genius - still one of the leading thinkers - even though he should be dead since many years (due to MotorNeuroneDesease) - as his doctors proposed... (so maybe will-power and a healthy brain can be stronger than lethal diseases.....)

Arthur Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung - this book contains one short, simple sentence, that took me a few years to fully comprehend.

Fjodor Dostojewski: Der Grossinquisitor (Die Brueder Karamasov), Die Daemonen, Der Idiot, Aufzeichnungen aus einem Totenhaus, ....  to me, the best of all psychologists, even though he never appeared to be one...

inspiring persons...

. Frank Zappa 

. Albert Einstein

. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

. Stephen Hawking

. Maurice Cornelius Escher

. Albert Schweitzer

. Isaac Newton

. Walter Bonatti - the premier alpinist of the 50´s

. Reinhold Messner

. Steph Davis

. Alex Honnold

. Tommy Caldwell

. Scott Jurek

. Catherine Destivelle

. Albert Precht

. Dean Potter

. Alex Huber