Paul Schwingenschlögl was privately tutored in composition and trumpet by Franz Koglmann in Vienna. This was followed by master classes with grand masters of jazz like George Russell, Gil Evans and Bill Dixon. One year before the fall of the wall, he moved to Berlin and played with the most renowned musicians of the former GDR, among them Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Uli Gumpert, Joe Sachse, Helmut Forsthoff, Johannes Bauer, Manfred Hering, Heiner Reinhardt and Klaus Koch.
Aside from his work in the fields of modern jazz and improvised music, he also ventured into rock music: He played concerts and recorded with the likes of Mitch Ryder, Ronnie Rocket Urini, Blixa Bargeld, Pete Wyoming Bender, Calico Soul and Chicks on Speed.
He performed with the Gil Evans Orchestra at Jazzfest Wien 1986, with the Egyptian band Salamat at the Pirineus Sur Festival Huesca (Spain) and at the World Roots Festival in Amsterdam, both in 1995. With his own band, African Chase Experience, he played at the Jazzfestival Chemnitz in 1997, Jazztage Ilmenau in 1999, Leipziger Jazzfestival 2000 and with his twelve-piece orchestra Transglobal Counterblast at the InnTOENE Jazzfestival (Austria) in May 2002. With the jazz quartet Takabanda, he performed at the jazz festival Estate Romana in 2002 and at the Centre Culturel d’Autriche. In February 2012, he performed with Catherine Christer Hennix and the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage at the Spectral Festival for Adventurous Music in Berlin, at the Sonic Arts Festival in Amsterdam and at the Kontraste Festival in Krems, Austria. In May 2013, he toured trough India with the band Chronic Blues Circus. In June of the same year, he gave a solo concert at the international festival jazzwerkstatt 50 in Peitz.
In April 2014, he took part in the Ultima Festival in New York as a soloist in Catherine Christer Hennix’ project Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, together with New York trumpeter Amir ElSaffar.
As of January 2017