A fascinating discussion with the acclaimed German multi-instrumentalist about wrangling technology through constraints, how process differs from experimentation, and his time-jumping collaboration with Stefano Castagna, Sea of Hopeless Angels.
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The Spotlight shines On returning guest, the innovative musician and composer Markus Reuter.
Markus originally joined us for Episode 130 back in November 2022. He joins us now to discuss his project Sea of Hopeless Angels (Unsung Records), which began as several unedited studio solo improvisations by Markus on his electric touch guitar. Those recordings were turned over to mixer Stefano Castagna, whose sonic wizardry included not only mixing but fully collaborating with the recordings, adding new sounds and instruments as inspiration struck, including his own voice, various samples, bass, synthesizers, and other electronics.
There are other inspirations at work in this project, but we will leave those to be revealed in the course of our discussion. It is important to mention the final collaborator for Sea of Hopeless Angels, though, and that is Aldo Grazzi, an Italian painter and video artist, who, back in the early 1980s, made visual experimentations interfacing a video camera with a cathode ray TV screen. The resulting video retains every imperfection of what was then state-of-the-art technology. All of the pieces on Sea of Hopeless Angels feature video accompaniment drawn from these videos, which are in the Grazzi archives, with two of them also accompanied by studio footage of Markus’ original performances.
Markus’ first visit to the podcast resulted in a landmark episode for me in terms of shaping the types of discussions I could have with an artist. I hope you find that this one carries that flame forward.
(all musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from Markus Reuter and Stefano Castagna's album Sea of Hopeless Angels)
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0:00 Intro
3:34 Catching up with Markus Reuter
11:30 The concept behind "Sea of Hopeless Angels"
16:21 Reuter's collaborative process with Stefano Castagna
22:59 The role of technology in shaping the album's sound
26:27 Aldo Grazzi's visual contributions to the project
29:18 Reuter's philosophy on experimentation and the creative process
35:46 The emotional and metaphorical themes in "Sea of Hopeless Angels"
41:20 Reuter's thoughts on process music and his project "Kid Arrow"
47:00 The importance of lineage and tradition in music
52:01 Upcoming projects and tours with Tuner
54:03 Reuter's closing thoughts on creativity and the human element in music
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Visit Markus Reuter at https://www.markusreuter.com
Download Markus Reuter & Stefano Castagna's Sea of Hopeless Angels on Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/sea-of-hopeless-angels-markus-reuter/g5ai6s0j0hoab
or Bandcamp → https://markusreuterflatiron.bandcamp.com/album/sea-of-hopeless-angels
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://songwhip.com/markusreuter/sea-of-hopeless-angels
Follow Markus Reuter on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/markusreuter
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/kopfmensch
and YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@markusreuter
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