Biography
Viennese multimedia artist Conny Frischauf channels her experimental sound-design roots and elemental curiosity into tightly constructed pop forms, evident throughout her first full-length effort, the January 2021 album Die Drift. She composed her initial piece at age eight, although sonic exploration had already captured her attention years earlier. During adolescence she studied guitar, trumpet, and French horn yet soon shifted toward unconventional methods of creating music. While completing further studies and launching her recording career, she spent many years employed at Vienna’s secondhand instrument shops, where she regularly tested an array of vintage analog synthesizers and processors. In 2013 she launched the electronic project RSHMTH alongside Rick Lins; the duo issued a self-titled cassette and performed across Austria and Germany over the ensuing seasons. She also maintained a steady presence as a DJ at the city’s recurring Flair & Flirt evenings, and in 2014 she added trumpet parts to two tracks on the self-titled album by local outfit Clemens Band Denk. As RSHMTH wound down in 2015, Frischauf devoted greater energy to DJing and live-event hosting, appearing both alone and together with Alexander Fuchs. Her involvement with International Major Label events resulted in a featured spot on “Bright White Shoes,” a track from Feater’s 2016 album Waste the Time. The next year she turned more deliberately toward visual work, mounting pieces at four separate Viennese galleries. Early 2018 saw the release of her debut solo EP, Effekt & Emotion, produced by Franz Spencer and issued on International Major Label. Twelve months later came the Affekt & Tradition EP on Kame House, mixed by Sam Irl, who remained a frequent collaborator. Before beginning a master’s program in multidisciplinary arts at the University of Applied Arts in 2020, she supplied audio production and mixing for Stephanie Rizaj’s short film As If Biting Iron. She extended similar support to Binta Diallo’s The Orange Tape and, in August 2020, provided the field-recording-and-ambient soundtrack for Rizaj and Marvin Kanas’ Traces. That autumn her piece “Im Sog des Risikos” appeared on the compilation accompanying Michaela Predeick’s photo book Therapy Flowers. Bureau B issued her first single for the label, “Roulette,” in November 2020, granting wider reach while honoring her creative autonomy; “Parapiri,” accompanied by a Diallo-directed video, followed in December. Die Drift arrived the next month, co-produced and mixed by Irl, fusing spare structures with exploratory expression.
Albums
Singles
