Sea of Hopeless Angels by Markus Reuter & Stefano Castagna
Release date: October 27, 2023Label: Unsung Records
When it comes to Markus Reuter’s work, I know I’m in for a challenge. Whether you get it or you don’t, you have to admit all of the work he’s done. From Stick Men, centrozoon, Tuner, The Crimson ProjeKCt, and his collaboration with Sonar’s Stephen Thelen, he is the mad scientist creating this insane, yet alternating world that’s filled with intense emotion, flowing throughout his compositions.
His collaboration with synthesist, bassist, vocals, percussion, and handling all of the treatment, Stefano Castagna, is a tribute to two characters; Damiel and Cassiel from the two Wim Wenders films; Wings of Desire (1987) and Faraway, So Close (1993), starring Bruno Ganz and the late, great Peter Falk. One of which would be a remake in 1998 starring Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue), and Nicolas Cage entitle City of Angels.
The album, Sea of Hopeless Angels, is seen as one of Reuter’s intensive free-rock work outside from Anchor & Burden, two years ago. But it has a sense of walking into the afterlife, being greeted by the two angels from Wenders’ parallel universe as they take you on a trip with flying across the horizon in the streets of Berlin in the mid-to-late 1980s.
While Stefano has connection with Markus going back to 2021’s TRUCE 2, it marks the first time the duo has collaborated on something quite extraordinary. It can take you back to a time where everything was peaceful, relaxed, and calm. There’s a sense of looking through the struggle of surviving during those hectic times where everything was in black & white.
I know that both Stefano and Markus are going to be compared to Fripp & Eno, but I wouldn’t compare them to that because it would be too much of a cop-out. Here, the music is a bit terrifying at times where you feel as if you’re the last earthling, alone inside this spaceship, communicating with the people back home, but down there, it has become empty, post-apocalyptic, surreal, and almost nightmarish like something out of Danny Boyle’s horror classic, 28 Days Later.
Then, they go into this techno, electronic route which speaks of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy .NUXX’ from the Trainspotting soundtrack. Reuter and Castagna know their source material well to go into this experimental route before banging down the doors to bring everything home as they enter Earth’s atmosphere and reveal that they are last survivors on their home planet, knowing that they’re living in the Twilight Zone, and taking part of this post-human society in a parallel world to keep going.
