Stefan Oberthaler is a pianist, keyboardist, arranger, soundprogrammer and producer with a unique musical vision that absorbs and reflects electronic music, jazz music and classical music, while retaining an enviable individualism and high quality craftmanship, that can span from quiet intimacy to searing intensity.

 

Grown up in Austria surrounded by classical music, which is reflected by an education of the piano on the university “Mozarteum”, Stefan Oberthaler showed an early interest in jazz music and improvisation. As a teenager he attended performances of jazzleaders including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Carla Bley, Steve Coleman and Pat Metheney. The rhythm, feeling and sounds, and also the biographies of musicians like Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis or John Coltrane gave him a deep inside into this kind of music. This finally led him to the university of jazz in Linz/Austria, where he finished the degree „Bachelor of Arts“ with excellence.

 

His compositions are very much in the Nu-Jazz mold, with ambient and minimalistic leanings. Atmospheries are what its all about: “To improvise with minimalistic soundscapes and electronic drumsounds in a reduced way, but with a very deep sense – that`s what Nu-Jazz means to me”.