Short Reviews [Tear - 2019 - "Secret Music"]

Tear is a project put together by Markus Reuter and Mark Wingfield, two very well-known guitarists who like to explore musical boundaries, and here they are doing so in a strange ambient soundscape. Recorded live on Scott Raymond's "Secret Music" radio show (WVKR-FM, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY), on August 12th, 2018. Reuter is providing touch guitar and electronics while Wingfield is on electric guitar and electronics. There are just two songs, each more than 16 minutes long, as the musicians create a soundboard which has far more in common with the likes of Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre than it does with guitarists. It is experimental, with individual notes often seemingly coming from nowhere as opposed to being played, and it creates a world where nothing exists apart from the music. It is both intense and relaxed, free yet constrained, accessible yet incredibly complex and dense. There is little in the way of light and dark, it is just the sound. There are a series of albums being released by these two musicians, of which this is the first, and this is available for “name your price” on Bandcamp, so if you want to expand your brain what have you got to lose?