Rome - Anthology [CD]

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his project, Rome is releasing a concise retrospective entitled "Anthology (2005-2015)". This selection features some of the most important works of Rome, songs of haunting beauty, moving through the hinterlands of fact and myth, and speaking of the greater context as well as from the heart. Jerome Reuter is part of a long tradition of lonesome guitar heroes, outcasts moving about restlessly, pursued by their dreams and demons, dedicated to a life beyond the pale. Jacques Brel, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Michael Gira, Nick Cave - architects of melancholy like these have left their footprints in Jerome Reuter's artistic expression. His music unites American folklore with Chanson and the angst-ridden tristesse of English Post Punk - 'Chanson Noir', as he once called it. Looming above all this is his distinctive, deep voice. A voice you want to believe knows all about man's true nature and purpose. The lyrics to his concept albums may be inspired by the works of William S. Burroughs or Bertolt Brecht, may be odes of love set against the backdrop of social and cultural conflict; what they always are, however, are honest expressions of freedom. The protagonists of Rome's lyrical world are history's forgotten heroes and outsiders, most notably of the 20th century: Anarchist rebels (as on "Flowers From Exile", 2009), the French resistance ("Nos Chants Perdus", 2010), Southern Africa's struggle for freedom ("A Passage To Rhodesia, 2014) or revolutionaries and underground fighters. Rome's central characters are gracefully sacrificing everything for love and ideals while taciturnly facing the turmoil life is throwing at them. Rome just like Cash, Cave or Cohen before him, unites a diverse audience, of various generations, cultural and social backgrounds. This is then what true art comes down to. A man with his guitar. An otherwise empty stage... And so it begins anew.