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| MARKUS REUTER (of Stick Men) Sultry Kissing Lounge - Limited Quantity CD + Download via MoonJune MARKUS REUTER Sultry Kissing Lounge Dear Friends in Music Here again I am presenting more music of my friend Markus Reuter, German composer, touch guitarist, instrument designer, producer, renaissance man, social media romantic warrior, dear friend, and travel/music/food/chat companion of mine on many journeys around the world in past few years. I am not ashamed neither shy when considering Markus as one of the world's most innovative, creative, original and unique musicians of the XXI century. Quoting Anil Prasad, one of the world's most respected music scribes, Markus has pursued an uncompromising, intriguing and occasionally incendiary path, writing and releasing a prolific amount of music for an ever-expanding audience. And by and large, it's an audience as diverse and discriminating as his output, which crisscrosses the worlds of avant-rock, contemporary classical, ambient, expansive pop, and experimental. Some of the best live and recorded music associated with my brain and feelings is related to Markus Reuter, who more than often brought an immense joy to my ears on almost 80 live shows of the progressive rock legends Stick Men (featuring King Crimson alumni Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto) that I have witnessed on 4 continents. CD - LIMITED QUANTITY - $12.00 + shipping INSTANT DOWNLOAD (WAV/FLAC/M4A/MP3-320) - $8.00 Compiled from a selection of opening live improvisations performed by Markus Reuter on Touch Guitar throughout The Crimson ProjeKCt's Spring 2014 European Tour. These instant compositions set the tone for each concert and provided a launch pad for the two drummers to begin their drum duet. The edits presented here cut-off at the point where Pat and Tobias entered the performance. These pieces weren't originally conceived as an album, however, we've devised a sequence that works harmonically, though they can just as easily be enjoyed in shuffle-mode or an order of your choosing. Please note that due to the nature of the material this recording is not mono-compatible. The Crimson ProjeKCt are Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Markus Reuter, Tobias Ralph, and Julie Slick. Thank you to the band and crew for the wonderful time we had on this tour. Very special thanks to Francesco Grieco, our European tour manager, and Julie Slick for the album title and sleeve illustrations. Additional thanks to Leonardo "Horatio" Pavkovic, Stick Men's booking manager and label partner, for featuring this album on MoonJune's BandCamp. - Markus Reuter Composed, performed, and recorded by Markus Reuter. Front of house engineer: Robert Frazza. Monitor engineer: Andrea Pellegrini. Guitar tech: Erik Emil Eskildsen. Post-production and mix by Markus Reuter at The Marlin Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA. Analog pre-mastering by Andrea Pellegrini. Mastered by Lee Fletcher. Produced by Markus Reuter and Lee Fletcher for Unsung Productions. WINGFIELD REUTER STAVI SIRKIS The Stone House MARK WINGFIELD guitar • MARKUS REUTER touch guitar YARON STAVI bass guitar • ASAF SIRKIS drums This album was reviewed, featured and air-played in over 50 countries worldwide. These four players, well-versed in transforming tangles of discursive strands into dazzling revelations, came together without any rehearsals or preamble, plugged in and took off. The resulting melange of rock-orientated grooves and languid drifts through spacey ambience is breathtakingly confident. With so much complimentary overlapping content and tuned-in acuity, you'd never guess that these six pieces were wholly improvised. Moving seamlessly from speculative reverie to ferocious, tumbling interplay, the degree to which this music sounds intricately arranged probably stems from the quartet's ability to swap the focus from its frontline to backline in the twinkling of an eye, a rare capacity that brings to mind Wetton-era Crimson's forays into the unknown. Wingfield's impassioned guitar runs springboard from Reuter's broad tonal sweeps. Bassist Yaron Stavi, whose nimble interlocking with drummer Asif Sirkis frequently regulates both direction and temperature. - Sid Smith, Prog Rock Magazine (UK) It's an album that breaks many rules, but could only be made by four musicians who not only learned them first, but continue to apply them even as they find ways to push past them into new terrain. Completely unclassifiable, The Stone House is a record that will challenge many preconceptions while still being rooted in enough of the approachable to render its appeal to fans of progressive music... a career-defining record for everyone involved. - John Kelman, All About Jazz (Canada/USA) Remarkable Spontaneous Electric Explorations. Four of today's finest progressive music artists got together to record an improvised album titled The Stone House. Although the music was not written or rehearsed, it's not free jazz. Instead, Wingfield, Reuter, Stavi, and Sirkis treat the listener to remarkable electric musical explorations where the four musicians engage in an ongoing creative dialog. The four instrumentalists constantly cross musical boundaries, injecting ambient electronics, prog rock machinations, psychedelia, jazz-rock and beyond. - Angel Romero, Progressive Rock Central (USA) Recording a live studio album with nothing written down or preplanned is a dangerous project to try unless you are the class of musician's on this recording. Improvised albums recorded without rehearsal often have a distinctive raw feel, but this album makes you feel the same quality you get at the concert hall after the band has refined the compositions for a long period and rehearsed for many years. Recently, I have been using the term "Beyond genre" to describe music that transcends or goes beyond genre. I think this album is suitable for such an expression. They expand the expressive possibilities of their individual instruments. Making a musical experiment such as this, so successful is never easy. Let alone one with the emotional repertoire of this album . - Che Dragon, Progutopia (South Korea) The interaction between the men is almost telepathic. The music is therefore downright nail biting and tension also continues in the quiet moments of the album. The tone is also put at ease with this incredibly exciting composition. Silver stands out the rotating, hypnotic rhythms... this composition turns around like a real whirlwind. The beautiful guitar solo can be seen as the eerily beautiful eye of this hurricane. This album deserves the designation 'masterpiece'. The sound of these four men is energetic and intense, but therefore very exciting. This album shakes you completely, but I know very little music more impressive. - Luke Peerdeman, Progwereld (Holland) Be prepared to be blown away... instant game changer... profoundly innovative and compelling... immediately essential... I can't even begin to describe how enthralled I am to have a copy of this stratospheric release by Wingfield, Reuter, Stavi, and Sirkis. - Wesley Derbyshire, Mediaversal Reviews (USA) What happens when four progressive Euro cats convene at a recording studio in Spain with nothing prepared beforehand? With no composed music, no rehearsals, overdubs expressly forbidden, no genre limitations... these four just plugged in and played. Spontaneous combustion creates fires but this spontaneous composition creates art. Those who thirst for new sound should seek no further. - Mike Greenblatt, Aquarian Magazine (USA) Not unlike the atmospheres of Terje Rypdal ECM recordings (for icy space guitars) or Miles Davis post "Bitches brew" (for the electrical, instrumental and rhythmic expansion) and we could also add Robert Fripp, Bill Frisell... as many references to music which is very written and precise, while it seems that here everything has been improvised in the studio in one take. Wonder. - Igor Wagner, Sefronia Chronique Jazz (France) I was completely taken aback and just in awe... It felt as if they were breaking the doors down of Jazz with a gigantic bulldozer... This is a spellbinding release - Zachary Nathanson, Music From The Other Side of the Room (USA) The two guitarists create an interplay that goes beyond the limits of the instrument... an ingenious and resourceful progression against the common use of the six strings.Dynamic and harmonious, emotional and powerful (the roaring start of Rush and the excellent Silver), in a crossover path where the conventions are lost and sounds make provocation. - Luigi Cattaneo, ProgressivaMente (Italy) Bassman Yaron Stavi, who has a long association with Robert Wyatt, not to mention Phil Manzanera and David Gilmour, and the rarely unemployed Asif Sirkis, on dextrous but very powerful drums, have a telepathic understanding of where that anchor should be, even in these unchartered waters. Atop that you have two of the most imaginative guitarists around, Markus Reuter of primarily Stick Men fame, although he has many more strings to his bow than that particular combo, and the much in demand Mark Wingfield, An unrivalled confection of consummate deliciousness. Listening intently – and you will – to The Stone House, it is hard to remember in places that this is all off the cuff, the arrangements unfolding before the listener, just as they did before the players as they switch attention from the top line to the rhythmic structure and back again with intuitive ease. The album moves from spacious ambience to edge-of-seat thrills and back again... When this thing motors it inescapably recalls the mighty Crimson in their 1973-74 improvisational pomp in the way it takes risks; it is that good! The sound throughout is gorgeous. - Roger Trenwith, The Progressive Aspect (UK) Brilliant, fresh, honest and uniquely original music that truly defies categorization! A telepathic masterpiece of progressive jazz-rock musicianship. - John Pritchard, Jazz-Rock.com (USA) Masterful... ensemble of great rank, equipped with tons of talent and expressive ingenuity, opening the field for the reign of the texture and the empire of impressionism within a sonorous scheme strictly demanding in the technical.... an hour of jazz-progressive delight. "The Stone House" as a 100% recommendable record for fans of progressive rock and jazz with especially adventurous motivations. - César Inca Mendoza Loyola, Autopoietican (Peru/Spain) The most imposing thing of all is that “The Stone House” was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs and completely improvised, with no music written down or rehearsed. Can you imagine that? Do listen to a single track and please read the above line again. How that’s possible?! Every performance here is simply amazing! The guys play like they have rehearsed each music theme at least a dozen times! .... It’s hard to believe that this is a live recording. - Thanos Aggelakis, Grande Rock (Greece) Rhythmic patterns allow the quartet to move from softly spoken music all the way to deafening rock and terrifying climaxes. This is not background music... ...Rocking passages such as the King Crimson-like Silver or the magnificent Fjords De Catalunya. You are entertained by sweeping landscapes and suggestive soundscapes. Your are fed daring musical adventurers for nearly an hour before being treated Bona Nit Senior Rovira's final moving chord. - Renee Yedema, IO Pages Magazine (Holland) Mark Wingfield and Markus Reuter... take the limits of their instruments and then just keep going. There are times when it is hard to realise that the sounds are coming from guitars as they are taken into brand new areas of tonal adventures. Fully improvised music is rarely as compelling or interesting as this... This is yet another incredibly important release from MoonJune. - Kev Rowland, Jazz Music Archives (USA/ New Zealand) In the rock world, music is dominated by bands consisting of a more or less consistent group of players. There are also solo artists, some of whom have set backing bands, but those musicians are rarely granted much more than an occasional spotlight during a performance. Jazz, on the other hand, has always been about the musicians individually, coming together in various configurations for a time, sometimes being a leader, sometimes a guest, spreading ideas around — nearly every sideman on a famous leader's album has albums of their own. For decades there’s been a stream of jazz created by getting together a set of musicians for a session and seeing what happens. The Stone House is a modern example of this strategy. The Stone House is outstanding from start to finish, eminently listenable, and should find a home in the collections of fans of both electric jazz and that flavor of progressive rock represented by Stick Men and most of the artists on MoonJune and RareNoise. - Jon Davis, Exposé Magazine (USA) Wingfield and Reuter raise the mastery of the guitar to a cosmic level. Both musicians are not afraid to go new ways, and are far from the standard guitar cliches. The albums's tracks are full of exciting dialogs and guitar solos which are like precious jewels, juicy bass inserts and polyrhythmic drum patterns.... The internal intrigue of the album is built on the almost magical interaction of the two first-class guitarists with the active support of the rhythm section... It is amazing that all the music of The Stone House is improvisational. - Leonid Auskern, Jazz Square (Russia) Exciting music that feels structured with melody and yet has a surfeit of exciting improvisations and climaxes. -George Harris, Jazz Weekly (USA) There has not been a previous plan, a score, any rehearsal or overdubs. The art and magic of the talent of each of these four musicians has reached such a high degree of communication and cohesion, that it's as if they had written and rehearsed all the music before hand. Without realizing the 59 minutes and 54 seconds total have gone unnoticed but gladly that leaves us a taste to want to repeat many times listening to the essence that only a work of art knows how to capture - Jordán Quintero, Opinionynoticias (Venezuela) Completely improvised music which sounds super strong and convincing, it's almost hard to believe that your are listening to a live recording of literally what happened on that memorable day (19 February 2016) in a studio in Spain. But it was played by four awesome musicians so that explains something. Six compelling instrumental pieces... and what an impressive example of "listen before you play" a credit to all four gentlemen. - Vrije Geluiden, VPRO (Holland) The communication between the musicians is truly telepathic. The individual performances by all quartet members are, as expected, quite amazing, both on the individual level and especially so on the ensemble level. A splendid effort which should make all guitar fans extremely happy, especially since many of the things heard on this album are quite unique and certainly innovative. - Adam Baruch, The Soundtrack Of My Life (Israel) Press play and you will be overwhelmed by ingenious and inventive prog rock with a jazzy jacket. No ego-tripping as in the jazz world. Each harmonious melody line is researched and turned into something spectacular. - Marino Serdons, Keys And Chords (Belgium) Be open minded and you'll find an unconventional music made by musicians peerless!" - Marc Thibeault, Profil Prog Reviews (Canada) Guitars become an otherworldly force in the hands of Mark Wingfield and Markus Reuter. The two bend the boundaries of traditional jazz-rock lines, using the guitar as a controller for electronics to lead into some beautiful sonic territories...gorgeous guitar-scapes. - Irene Trudel WFMU FM NYC (USA) The Stonehouse is an impressive session from four musicians who are sure to be the cream of the international fusion scene. The music on this album was recorded without anything preset or written down it was completely improvised. No overdubs! The result is an enormously exciting album, on which the four participants are mutually encouraging each other on high-altitude flights on their instruments. Free music, sometimes violent, sometimes meditative - always giving you goosebumps! It's over-used, but here the term "Super Session" really fits! - Bernd Kielmann, Medien-Info.com (Germany) C O M I N G T H I S S U M M E R WINGFIELD REUTER SIRKIS D.O.Q. Another gem from LA CASA MURADA SESSIONS (recorded in February 2016) "Asaf Sirkis... His deft touch on cymbals, and his use of different drums and approaches, often turned the soundscapes of Mark and Markus into the background for him to play against." "Markus Reuter and his magical guitars extends us environmental Sonic sheets while Mark Wingfield plan with full and sharp tonal ability." write your comments about the article :: © 2017 Jazz News :: home page |