User talk:Heidi Himmel

Both an accomplished blues guitar player and a prolific singer/songwriter, Austrian-based Ripoff Raskolnikov must be considered one of the most idiosyncratic figures on the European blues scene. Like thousands of his colleagues, he admires and reveres such blues greats as Blind Willie McTell, Skip James, Robert Johnson or John Lee Hooker. On the other hand, and quite unlike most of his colleagues, he has no desire to imitate or copy them. Nor, for that matter, is he willing to remain within the boundaries of what is generally accepted as the blues.

What does connect him to the aforementioned giants is his fully committed, unwavering integrity in exploring, and coming to terms with such human emotions as love, passion, desire, loss, pain, the quest of beauty, hunger for life, or fear of death. Driven by such forces, Raskolnikov unleashes songs of powerful poetic and musical expression which, more often that not, defy stylistic categorization.

most important musical projects:

 * solo act
 * 20th Century Blues Band (1987-2000): with Peter Morschner (bass) and Sigi Ritter/ Hans Irsic (drums)
 * duo with Ismael Barrios (percussion)
 * duo with Mátyás Pribojszki(harmonica)
 * cooperation with Theater ECCE in Salzburg: music for stage adaptations of Dostoevsky's „Crime and Punishment“ (2005) and Gorky's „The Lower Dephts“ (2008)
 * Ripoff Raskolnikov Band (since 2006): with Szabolcs Nagy (piano), Robert Kepes (bass) and Lajos Gyenge (drums)

discography:

 * Lost and Found (2010)
 * Room for Two (with Mátyás Pribojszki, 2009)
 * Everything is Temporary (2006)
 * Crime and Punishment (2006)
 * Lucid Moments (2003)
 * Alone and Acoustic (2001)
 * Wear and Tear (1995)
 * Live (1992)
 * Out of the Blue (1991)
 * The 20th Century Blues Band (1988)

Weblink: http://www.ripoffraskolnikov.com