Markus Reuter - Sultry Kissing Lounge (2014)

Markus has recently released a new solo album: "Sultry Kissing Lounge". The album features a selection of soundscapes that he played as the opening pieces to The Crimson Projekct's recent European Tour. Another project that is imminent is the public release of "Todmorden 513 - Concerto for Orchestra" which has so far only been available to pledgers and TCP concert visitors. TM513 will be oficially released on June 17.

We know the name of Markus Reuter for his collaborations with Ian Boddy and more recently with Stephen Parsick. A dominant figure in the circles of progressive ambient music, he presents here his last solo album since Trepanation released in 2009. His 7th since his Taster in 1997. Whether it is with Centrozoon, with his long-time partner Bernhard Wöstheinrich, or in duet, the German guitarist brings a sulphurous dimension in sonic atmospheres which grow rich of his abstract vocabulary. Needs to hear Colour Division, with Ian Boddy, and Lament with Stephen Parsick, to seize all the dimension of this skillful sculptor of enigmatic vibes who sheds his burning tears and hissing strata of guitars among which the slow loops and the slow agonies are merging into some nebulas vampiric waves and give an intriguing soundscapes to a meditative music which is dying of black. In solo, the effect is rather different. “Sultry Kissing Lounge” is a sonic collection of 13 music pieces where Markus Reuter tortures and exorcises his Touch Warr Guitar to give it some Robert Fripp's airs who looks for the linear vibes of Brian Eno in sonic capsules devoid of rhythms. Moreover the reference to the duet Fripp/Eno is quite indicated to describe at best “Sultry Kissing Lounge”. So much that our ears are sometimes quite confused. It is within the framework of the The Crimson ProjeKCt's tour, which took place in Europe in spring 2014, that “Sultry Kissing Lounge” was consisted, played and mostly recorded. This project, which includes the participation of artists as famous as Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Markus Reuter, Tobias Ralph, and Julie Stick, is homage to the work of King Crimson. And it was Markus Reuter who opened those shows with short sonic interludes to which he gave feminine names.
"Kandi" appears at our ears in a shy way. Soft Cartesian waves float as spectres in the black. We hear delicate pulsations which are smothered by slow lifeless momentums from which the swirls are doing immense sonic waves and add a quite affectionate mood. Intelligent in his presentation, Markus Reuter establishes a kind of sound crescendo which rises gradually in the course of the tracks. Tracks for the greater part improvised where the Frippertronic waves are gliding in the air as recollections misled in our drawers of incomprehensibility. Because here, the survival of “Sultry Kissing Lounge” is bound to our degree of tolerance. Behind these walls of crushing, frying and organic tones of a metal fauna are hiding pads of a guitar with a shape of languorous floating solos as in "Patricia", "Veronica" and "Roberta" which inhales the airs of the ambient nomad that is Erik Wollo. Airs that we also find on the very beautiful and penetrating "Michaela". Most of the tracks here are quiet and disturbing, but some have lot of emotions like exactly "Kandi" and also "Francesca", the sweet and black "Olga" and the very ambient "Valentina" and "Julia", without forgetting "Gabrielle" which wraps us of her black wings. There are dramatic odes. Sonic tapestries black and intense as in "Lorena", "Brigitte" and "Josefine" which bathe in some heavy Frippertronic resounding guitar pads and laments. Guitar pads which glide here and there all over this collection of sound improvisations from Markus Reuter but which float on these titles with more insistence. And with the way "Gabrielle" concludes “Sultry Kissing Lounge” we understand that Markus Reuter still had lot of juice in his magic fingers.
“Sultry Kissing Lounge” is an album which is not within the reach of all ears. Moreover, there are many ears that would believe to hear the same airs so much these ambient structures of Frippertronic vibes are molded in the same hallucinogenic perfumes. It's an album filled by a lot of very ectoplasmic vibes where Markus Reuter's Touch Guitar is roaring lamentations of metallic fluidity as is singing somber bewitching airs which scratch a hearing of the most curious. The fans of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, as well as Centrozoon and Markus Reuter are simply going to delight in it.

Tracklist:

01. Kandi
02. Patricia
03. Francesca
04. Lorena
05. Olga
06. Veronica
07. Valentina
08. Julia
09. Brigitte
10. Josefine
11. Roberta
12. Michaela
13. Gabrielle