Marcus Schmickler

German composer Marcus Schmickler first came to prominence as a member of POL, the project formed by Carsten Schulz (C-Schulz) that released Transomuba (1994), that mixes field recordings, world and techno music, and Baby I Will Make You Sweat (1995), the (vastly inferior) soundtrack to a movie.

Schmickler then recorded Wabi Sabi (1996), an avantgarde work of computer-generated drones that updated Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music to the digital age.

Onea Gako (Odd Size, 1994) was credited to Marcus Schmickler, and it was co-arranged and produced by C-Schulz.

The Pluramon project debuted with Pickup Canyon (1996), a collaboration with Can's drummer Jaki Leibezeit. Pluramon operated on a reconstructionist agenda: he meticuously rebuilt in studio the sound of an instrumental prog-rock band by layering live and computer-generated sounds one on top of the other (and on top of Leibezeit's rhythms).

Render Bandits (Mille Plateaux, 1998) does the same with a larger cast of musicians (Frank Demerit, Jochen Rueckert, Anouk Azar, Steve Bohn, and Jaki Liebezeit) and a broader palette of styles.

Bit Sand Riders (Mille Plateaux, 2000) is a remix album of tracks from Pluramon's first two albums.

Sator Rotas (a-Musik, 2000) continued the semi-concrete experiment of Wabi Sabi, while, under his own last name, Schmickler released the chamber electroacoustic compositions of Param (A-Musik, 2001), ranging from neoclassical orchestral music to Karlheinz Stockhausen's reorganiziaton of sound.

Schmickler delved into vocal music as Pluramon with Dreams Top Rock (Karaoke Kalk, 2003), whose vocals are provided by Angelo Badalamenti's chanteuse Julee Cruise. From dense hypnotic dream-pop (Time For a Lie) to more conventional trip-hop (Have You Seen Jill) from languid lounge-jazz (Flagolea) to the shoegazing tidal waves of Noise Academy and Log (the standouts), the album is less adventurous than the previous two. It is, by those standards, a mere diversion.



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