Marcus Schmickler (born November 15, 1968, in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

) is a German composer, musician, and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

. He is also known under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Pluramon.

Background

In 1968 he was born as the son of an industrial salesman and a baker's daughter in Cologne. Soon his parents moved to Kuerten where he met the music of

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

. In 1991, after spending a year in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, he started studying music in Cologne and became a member of the seminal collective Kontakta. 1992 his first solo release appeared with the French label Odd Size. In 1995, he was co-initiator of the A-Musik record store and the DJ collective Brüsseler-Platz-10a-Musik, together with Georg Odijk and Jan St. Werner ( Mouse on Mars). Since 1995 he works as a composer, for film theater and radio play. In 1996 he released one of the first fully digitally produced post-rock albums under the pseudonym Pluramon on the German label

Mille Plateaux ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborativ ...

. After a concert in Cologne, in 1998, he became a member of the 12-piece electro-acoustic ensemble MIMEO (Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra). In 1999, he completed his studies in electronic music with Hans Ulrich Humpert and the composition with

Johannes Fritsch Johannes Georg Fritsch (27 July 1941 – 29 April 2010) was a German composer. At the age of seven, Fritsch found a violin in the attic of his uncle's house in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, and began lessons with a village music teacher named Kn ...

with a thesis on Gottfried Michael Koenig. In 2000 he published jointly with

Thomas Lehn Thomas Lehn (born 1958 in Fröndenberg) is a German piano and synthesizer player active in free improvisation and contemporary music. Lehn has recorded with Marcus Schmickler, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Phil Minton, Phil Durrant, Radu Malf ...

the CD ''Bart'', which was reviewed to be one of the most impressive synth-improv performances ever. In September 2001 he recorded the Pluramon album ''Dreams Top Rock'' with American singer

Julee Cruise Julee Ann Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released fo ...

and went on an extended tour through South America on the initiative of

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange an ...

in 2003. Since 2004 he has been working on various theater projects, with among others,

Felix Ensslin Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, S ...

. He created numerous works of electronic music, and compositions for choir, chamber ensemble, and orchestra. In 2009 he composed ''Bonn Patternizationon'' on behalf of the

International Year of Astronomy The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...

2009 and the German Music Council, a sonification with projections based on astrophysical data. Since 2015, Schmickler has worked as an assistant professor at th
Institute For Music and Media
in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

. Marcus Schmickler has received prizes and scholarships, including the

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...

, the state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

and curated festival programs in the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the ZKM. He was a longtime member of the jury of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council). As an author, he wrote articles on various topics of electronic music.
Ensslin, Blumenstein: ''zwischen zwei toden''

Partial discography

* Solo **''Richters Patterns'', Tochnit Aleph, 2020 **''Particle/Matter-Wave/Energy'',

Kompakt Kompakt ( Labelcode: LC 12012) is a Cologne-based electronic music independent record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known fo ...

, 2019 **''Rule of Inference'', a-Musik, 2011 **''Bari Workshop'', Presto?!, 2011 **''Palace of Marvels ueered pitch',

Editions Mego Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by P ...

, 2010 **''Altars of Science'', Editions Mego, 2007 **''DEMOS for Choir'', a-Musik, 2005 **''Param'', a-Musik, 2001 **''Sator Rotas'', a-Musik, 1999 **''Wabi Sabi'', a-Musik, 1996 **''Onea Gako'', Odd Size, 1993 * As Pluramon **''The Monstrous Surplus'', Karaoke Kalk, 2007 **''Dreams Top Rock'', Karaoke Kalk, 2003 **''Bitsand Riders'',

, 2000 **''Render Bandits'', Mille Plateaux, 1998 **''Pickup Canyon'', Mille Plateaux, 1996 * With MIMEO **''Wigry'', Bolt Records, 2011 **''Sight'', Cathnor, 2008 **''Lifting Concrete Lightly'',

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery ...

, 2004 **''The Hands of Caravaggio'', Erstwhile Records, 2001 **''Electric Table & Chair'', Grob, 2000 * Collaborations ** Marcus Schmicker/Thomas Lehn "Neue Bilder", microton, 2017 ** Marcus Schmickler John Tilbury "Timekeepers", A-Musik, 2015 ** Marcus Schmickler Julian Rohrhuber "Politiken der Frequenz", Tochnit Aleph / Editions Mego, 2014 ** Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn ''Live Double Séance ntaa Kalojen Uida', Editions Mego, 2011 ** R/S ''USA'', Pan, 2011 ** Schmickler/ Gratkowski/ Nabatov ''Deployment'',

Leo Records Leo Records is a British record company and label which releases jazz from Russian, American, and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz. Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Le ...

, 2010 ** Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn ''Navigation im Hypertext'', a-Musik, 2008 ** Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn ''Kölner Kranz'', a-Musik, 2008 ** R/S One''(snow mud rain)'', Erstwhile Records, 2007 ** Marcus Schmickler with Hayden Chisholm ''Amazing Daze'', Häpna, 2007 ** Marc Ushmi ''Doshhammer Mixes'' (without Label), 2007 ** Claudio Bohorquez, ''Solo and Accompaniment'',

Aulos An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology. Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was ...

, 2006 ** Marcus Schmickler/

John Tilbury John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM (group), AMM. Early life and education ...

''Variety'', a-Musik, 2005 ** Schmickler/Lehn/Rowe/Nakamura ''Untitled'', Erstwhile Records, 2004 ** Schmickler/Lehn ''Amplify Balance'' 7 CD Box, Erstwhile Records, 2004 ** Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn /

Keith Rowe Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

''Rabbit Run'', Erstwhile Records, 2003 ** Marc Ushmi meets Reverend Galloway ''Mein Kopf verlor ein Dach'', Whatness, 2003 ** ''Soundcultures'',

Suhrkamp Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

, 2003 ** Marc Ushmi/Thomas Brinkmann ''Chevrolet Corvette'' Max Ernst, 2001 ** Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn ''Bart'', Erstwhile Records, 2000 ** ''2:3 Oswald Wiener zum 65. Geburtstag'', Supposé, 2000 ** ''Prix Ars Electronica Cyber Arts 2000'' Ars Electronica Center, 2000 ** Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik '' Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik'',

WDR WDR may refer to: * Waddell & Reed (stock ticker: WDR), an American asset management and financial planning company * Walt Disney Records, an American record label of the Disney Music Group * WDR neuron, a type of neuron involved in pain signall ...

, 1998 ** Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik ''sT'', Sieben, 1997 ** Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik / Agentur Bilwet ''1000 Fehler'', Supposé, 1996 ** Pol ''Baby I Will Make You Sweat'' Odd Size, 1995 ** Pol ''Transomuba'', Odd Size, 1994 ** Kontakta ''s/T'', Odd Size, 1992

References

External links

* http://www.piethopraxis.org/ Official Site
Homepage of Pluramon

Faculty home page

Marcus Schmickler exclusive generative audio piece for the Composing with process series
on Ràdio Web MACBA
Marcus Schmickler's "Ontology of vibration: economics, music and number" podcast on Ràdio Web MACBA
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmickler, Marcus 1968 births 21st-century classical composers German electronic musicians Living people Male classical composers 21st-century German male musicians