Based upon the available track, I’m really looking forward to this release! 🎻🎼

Markus Reuter’s String Quartet No.1 ‘Heartland’ is now available for pre-order as a high-res download or luxurious CD-Edition inside an ECM-style slipcase with an expansive booklet featuring expansive liner notes, exclusive photography and contributions by Tony Levin and Frank Schätzing. 

After years of preparation and planning, Solaire Records is proud and excited to present ‘Heartland’, Markus Reuter’s first string quartet. The album sees Markus further explore his algorithmically-supported composing technique to create a sonic language that will surprise even long-standing supporters. 

After spending months listening to most of music history’s major string quartets, Markus ultimately decided to break with tradition and approach things from an entirely unique angle. Working closely with Oval’s Markus Popp, the tracks were built using a pool of self-referential musical fractals. By combining them into deeply layered structures, every single bar of music is related to what precedes and follows it, even though there is not a single mechanical repetition in these pieces. 

Performed by the prestigious Matangi Quartet and recorded by award-winning producer Dirk Fischer, Heartland is a journey to the borders of melody and harmony: Driving, sensual, serene and moving.

Releases April 12, 2019 

Written by Markus Reuter, Summer 2018 

Matangi Quartet: 

Maria-Paula Majoor, violin I 
Daniel Torrico Menacho, violin II 
Karsten Kleijer, viola 
Arno van der Vuurst, violoncello 

Recorded 17 & 18 October 2018 
Kirche Zum Heiligen Kreuz, Berlin 
Recording producer, balance engineer, editing: Dirk Fischer 

Technical equipment: EvenFlow 

Liner notes concept: Equinox Embassy 
Photography: Dutch Rall 
Design and layout: Rutger Zuydervelt 

Cover design: Rutger Zuydervelt 

Executive producers: Wolfgang Gruner, Peter Smith, Dirk Fischer