New albums, “The Tower” and “The Hierophant”, out on December 19th!
For two decades now Jerome Reuter a.k.a ROME has been a force to reckon with in the musical underground. Through relentless touring and a steady stream of high quality concept albums, ROME has built a remarkably loyal following from Berlin to LA, from Sydney to Saigon, from Lisbon to Kyiv.
Lyrically inspired by world literature from Burroughs to Brecht, Celine to Cioran, from Hesse to Jünger; ROME’s detailed, well-researched, yet particularly accessible concept albums combine his interest in history, philosophy and the arts in a most compelling way. Through his unique vision he has managed to establish his very own musical niche informed by various European folk and Chanson traditions coupled with post punk and industrial influences.
Now, at the end of the project’s 20th anniversary celebrations which included a very successful tour of Australia in August, the Luxembourg born singer-songwriter, rings in the next era of ROME with two fresh and visionary albums: ‘The Tower’ and ‘The Hierophant’.
THE TOWER
ROME’s new and ever more mature sound is informed by a radically minimalist folk approach, with nonetheless charmingly lush arrangements. ‘The Tower’ is an introspective and enigmatic work at whose center stands nothing less than ROME’s raison d’etre: The Great Work and the sacrifices both necessary and essential on the demanding path to light.
As an unreachable bulwark against the general decline of every value in life, the tower would have been erected long ago to defend the coast. It would have been raised on a rocky platform resting on the sea floor. It would have been joined to the continent by a thin tongue of sand. It would have offered a heroic, magical point of view. A place for our claim to know and point out vaster horizons. It would have stood firm on the ramparts. This isolated tower would not have been just a refuge for more or less mystic escape, but also a post of resistance and combat.
Reuter’s poetry is the voice of the solitary spirit. A remarkable feat, lyrically demanding, ROME’s songs require of the listener a willingness to penetrate shadows and trace the inner drama of the modern world clearly, calmly and convincingly.
In a time which celebrates noise, fame and convenience, here is the well-crafted antidote, a hymn of praise to obscurity, difficulty and silence.
‘The Tower’ is an unmissable majestic experience that won’t leave you indifferent.
THE HIEROPHANT
Whatever the great poets have affirmed in their finest moments is the nearest we can come to an authoritative religion or truth. It is in this spirit that ROME welcomes the listener into the temple of ‘The Hierophant’, ROME’s final album of its second decade of existence.
‘The Hierophant’ represents the enigmatic accompanying piece to the more introspective and seclusive recent work (of ‘The Tower’). Starting its journey during these ‘Days of Assembly’, from the opening ‘Secret Harbour’ along ‘On Sorrow’s Embankment’ to its logical finale in the mythical North with ‘Apollo of Hyperborea’; ‘The Hierophant’ is a spiritual travelogue seeking out the word and world of this ‘My Frail Ambassador’, the proclaimer of the sacred truce, interpreter of the ancestral laws and our guiding light through these darkened times. Through a magical web looped from atmospheric guitar work, Reuter looks beyond the world’s grim realities as ‘The Harvest Is Not Here’. The songs are both enigmatic and touching, a strange sacrament, elusive and half-hidden, like the gospel of a soft cult.
Musically, the radically reduced folk of earlier work is still very much present, though different in calibre. ‘The Hierophant’ proclaims its truths not from a place of solitude and remote resistance, but from the threshold of the beyond. Sprinkled with sparse percussion and dream-like string sections, the album invites the listener to participate in an aural rite of passage, invoking echoes of forgotten rituals and the tremors of inner transformation. Reuter’s guitar work and lyrical strength is particularly strong on this release. Each track unfolds like a veiled scripture, it is a collection of layered sonic devotion adorned with symbols and spells, demanding attentive and repeated listening.
ROME’s dual release of ‘The Tower’ and ‘The Hierophant’ is a twin engine of magical splendour. Not to be missed. While both albums will be released at the same time, they are twin albums: inseparable and meant to be experienced together.
