Since the late 1990’s, Markus Reuter has steadily made a name for himself as a formidable player, a gifted improviser and a composer for both rock and classical music ensembles. As one third of Stick Men, he tours extensively across Europe, Asia, Australia, and in North and South America alongside King Crimson’s Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. In 2013, his large-scale composition for orchestra, ‘Todmorden 513’ received its world premiere performed by the Colorado Chamber Orchestra. Here he is working with Switzerland’s post-minimal quartet, SONAR and live electronics specialist, Tobias Reber.
Reuter leads this ensemble through a series of compositions that are amongst his earliest, having all been written between 1985 and 1987. “For me the striking thing about this album is that the themes and melodies and rhythms that you’re hearing were written when I was 14 years old,” explains Reuter. “I had these little motifs set aside for such a long time and I never knew what to do with them.” Recorded in just one day under Reuter’s direction, the pieces were prepared as modules, most of which contain a 12-tone row and assigned to an individual player. “They had the freedom to decide when to move to the next stage within the module, independent of each other,” says Reuter. Within each module, a finite number of choices are available. “The choice is limited to the ‘when’, not the ‘what’. There’s a specific thing asked of you but you can decide when to move to the next element in the series.”
Personally, I’ve had real issues with this album, as when I think I’m just about getting to grips with it the feeling goes away and yet again I think it’s dire. But, I honestly think that is more down to me than it is to the album itself. This is incredibly repetitive, but there are similarities with Can, and for some reason I found myself thinking of Art Zoyd, although they sound nothing alike. This is something that takes perseverance, and at the end of it I’m still not sure if the effort was worth it. This is music that needs to be worked at, and certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
