CD Info

2010
Independent Release

10  Tracks

English Lyrics

Reism appears to be a trio, although there are four performers listed on the website. Not sure that’s important, but they do make a lot of music, a lot of sound, most of it created electronically, these folks are some serious engineers as well as being educated and talented musicians. They say they’re living in Norway these days, guess they had enough of sunny, downtown Liverpool. Never having been to Norway myself I can only go by what I hear, but, from what I hear, it doesn’t get much better than Norway so their choice of location is understandable. And there is hardly a stronger musical environment anywhere.

Core performers include vocalist Kirsten Jørgensen, guitarist and electronics engineer extraordinaire Tom Poole-Kerr and drummer Frode Sjo. And that experience at the McCartney Institute seems to have prepared them in more ways than one. The group does recording, production, engineering, distribution and promotion, and does it all with a flair. The music itself seems to be a combination of both synthetic and organic sounds. What appears to be keyboard driven is actually sounds that are "programmed by Tom using various Hardware and Software synths and samples through Logic Studio. Tom scours presets from all manner of synthesizers, editing sounds originally intended for different music styles and usually ending up distorting the hell out things and breaking them beyond recognition." That originality doesn’t stop there, the band suggests, "We also like to contrast the harsh Industrial noise with softer organic sounds such as strings and choirs." The vocals are, I suspect, real. And Kirsten does some fine work there, not operatic, not metal, but covering some interesting territory. Of course, there is some effective manipulation of that voice, layering, overdubbing, that sort of thing. Something not really unique in electronic music, but always of interest, especially with a significant vox like this. In fact, the only fault I can point to with the CD is the cover art; a little too avant-garde for me, I’d rather see something a little less PhotoShopeee for my taste, but, these guys clearly go for the outer edges so I guess it’s in keeping with the musical theme.

My communication with the band had some focus on their experience with the Institute, it being something I was not previously familiar with. And, I’ve always been a Beatles fan so what that experience was about was intriguing to me. The band provided some interesting commentary on the subject.

"LIPA was a great experience for us. Being in such a melting pot of musicians, engineers, lighting designers, and management threw us into a creative atmosphere with knowledge from all aspects of the business. The Institute has top of the range studios, rehearsal spaces, and theaters. So we had free access to all the things we needed to build a band.

Tom learnt how to program and sequence synthesizers, manipulate audio, record and engineer music, whilst Kirsten studied vocal techniques and styles, performing on stage, dance, and arranging music. Our first gig was actually part of one of Kirsten's assessments.

We also used LIPA's facilities and involved ourselves in other student's projects to get our first two music videos made.

Lots of people complain about the school, that it's very free and you have to guide yourself, but basically you get out of it what you put in. And we plunged in headfirst."

A very interesting concept, and one that clearly paid off for Reism.

Now, let’s look at that music. There’s a nice blend of styles here, maybe that’s something they teach at the Institute. But you don’t always find this range of diversification in most productions. You get the harder numbers, you get some nice softer moments, you get some metal, although not to the extent that you get in some productions, and you get the very definite electronic elements. There are some limited tracks online, one from the CD here. Some others focus on activities back when they were students, also interesting. And it captures some of the directions Reism moves in.

We begin with Give In which takes a somewhat metal direction, light on the electronic, even providing a tiny bit of the dark male vocal. . .course, this could be electronic, hard to tell here given that anything is possible with the multiple electronic capabilities the band has at their disposal. But the lyrics suggest a dark passage, as the CD title has promised:

The second title, Let Me Go begins our journey into the great electronic technoland where Reism seems most comfortable. There are guitars that seem to actually be guitars. But there are clearly other sounds that come from the fertile electronic imagination of our engineering side. Organic and synthetic, but nicely combined and working seamlessly to provide a cushion for the Kirsten vocals which, we suspect, are largely organic.

Liars in Love takes us even further into electro land. Here even the vocals seem to be altered to protect the innocent, assuming there are any left. It sure sounds like there are keyboards here but I guess nothing is at it seems. Not to say it isn’t interesting or entertaining, it is, you just don’t get a feeling this could be presented live with the same degree of functionality. Ah well, details.

Reism does some fine ballad material, assuming you’re not looking for a Within Temptation interpretation of the concept ballad. There are a few of these on the CD, starting with Sink in Deep (Dark Water) which showcases some fine vocal work over some interesting electronic sounds that beg multiple listens. Words is an even sweeter sound, almost approaching the Gothic in some respects. Maybe not as dark as some, but taking us in the right direction:

This softer direction carries on with other titles as well. Broken is about as reflective as this music gets and, again, it showcases a lovely vocal style over that almost classical electronic direction, dreamy and subdued. You don’t get this with Marilyn Manson too often.

Electronic music offers a lot of possibilities, both in terms of production opportunities and musical interpretations. I guess I never anticipated this from a Beatles orientation. But, time goes on; the Beatles were groundbreaking in their days, Reism seems to be carrying on with that tradition. And it’s pretty good. Even with the questionable cover art.

9 / 10

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