Gary Husband & Markus Reuter: Music Of Our Times

A tour of Japan was canceled. Some lag time ensued. So Leonardo Pavkovic—el jefe at MoonJune Records—set up some studio time for multi-instrumentalist (pianist here) Gary Husband and guitarist Markus Reuter. The result is Music Of Our Times.

The set is spontaneously-composed. It is tranquil, moody and atmospheric. The first impression of the opening seconds of "Colour Of Sorrow," the opening tune, is that this was recorded in a cistern, a la Pauline Oliveros, or a cathedral. The sound has a gorgeous resonance. Notes hang in the air, seemingly swelling, gathering energy. Husband's piano—A Fazoli Pianoforti Grand—has a sharp, ringing crispness. Reuter's guitar and live electronics paint subdued, subtle orchestrations, a sort of subterranean electro-string section vibe. Some guitarists sound like they want to conquer the world. This may have been the case with Truce (Moonjune Records, 2020), Rueter's trio offering, an oftimes wailing, in-your-face set. The volume and bombast potentials of the electric guitar encourage brashness. But here Reuter sounds as if he wants to make the world a better, more beautiful place, with understatement, without fanfare or artifice, employing studied understatement and a deft and thoughtful grace.

The music maintains a marvelous continuity of mood. Suite-like, it could be a soundtrack to a slide show of Claude Monet's water lilies paintings, luminous greens and blues sprinkled with brighter hues, blurring together, the crystal clarity of the sky reflected on the shining surface of water juxtaposed with the softness of surrounding shoreline vegetation, and the lilies themselves. Indeed, the cover art (by Ramiro Rodriguez) looks as if it could be a nod to Monet, with the water's surface and the lilies viewed from a perspective of immersion in the pond; and opening the CD cover tri-fold reveals butterflies, viewed in the submerged, reduced red wavelength world. All of the senses are employed in the assessment of sound, and rarely does cover art walk so hand-in-hand with the music. These musings, of course, and the cover art, are after-the-fact matters.

The recording session for the timeless Music Of Our Times, set up on the fly, after a tour crumbled, in a pause before return-to-the states flights, is a work of extraordinary beauty, a peak achievement for the artists and for Moonjune Records. Well played Messrs. Pavkovic, Husband and Reuter.