As the celebrations for their twentieth anniversary draw to a close, ROME opens the next chapter with two new, visionary works: ‘The Tower’ and ‘The Hierophant.’The latest work, ‘The Tower’, is a groundbreaking opus, permeated by a matured sonic language: a radically minimalist folk approach. It’s an album reduced to its essence, clearly contoured, marked by an almost ascetic discipline, yet imbued with a mysterious richness that can only emerge from deep interiority.
The tower is not a physical structure; it is a cipher, a figure in a spiritual realm. It stands as a symbol of consolidation, resolve, and resistance. Erected as a bulwark against the current of dissolution that sweeps through the ages, ‘The Tower’ stands tall as the outermost outpost of an internally disciplined existence.
If this tower were to take physical form, it would be set on a rock in the sea, connected to the mainland by a narrow walkway. Yet, its true location transcends geography. It is the place where one withdraws from all that disperses them. It is not a sanctuary of retreat, but a vantage point, a bastion, perhaps even a place of profound decision. From here, the gaze reaches into the vastness - not into the far distance, but into the profound depths.
In this context, Reuter is not merely a singer but a chronicler: his verses are history made manifest, an expression of tragic clarity, an incorruptible insight into the present. They demand not consumption, but participation; not distraction, but contemplation. Reuter’s poetry calls to the listener, inviting them into their own inner self, into the ineffable. It is a touch beyond language - a lyrical discipline of rare intensity.
In an era that lives and perishes on the surface, ‘The Tower’ rises like a final monolith, a work of profound interiority. It is an album that doesn’t scream but sustains; doesn’t glitter but glows; doesn’t flatter but shapes. It stands as a counter-sign: not against time, but moving through it. And it speaks to those who, amidst the world’s clamor, have not yet lost their inner core, who can still hear what time itself can no longer articulate.
‘The Hierophant’ serves as the enigmatic counterpart to the introspective work of retreat, ‘The Tower’. Its journey commences in those ‘Days of Assembly’, starting in the ‘Secret Harbour,’ traversing ‘On Sorrow's Embankment,’ and culminating in its redemptive transcendence in the mythical North (‘Apollo of Hyperborea’). It is a spiritual travelogue, driven by the search for word and world of that ‘My Frail Ambassador,’ an interpreter of ancient laws and a light-bearer through the darkness of time.
‘The Hierophant’ no longer speaks from a place of retreat, nor from within the walls of an inner fortress, but from the very edge of the transcendent. Through a sonic tapestry woven from atmospheric guitar work, Reuter gazes beyond the stark contours of the mundane. There is no harvest in a world that has severed itself from the otherworldly (‘The Harvest Is Not Here’).
The songs are at once mystically rapturous and deeply touching, half-revealed and half-hidden - like the gospel of a silent cult. The musical approach remains akin to the radically reduced folk of previous works, though with an altered intensity. Sparse percussion and dream-laden strings transport the listener into an acoustic initiation space.
Memories of long-lost rites resurface, bringing with them the tremor of inner transformation. Reuter demonstrates a unique density in both his guitar work and lyrical expression. Each piece feels like a veiled prayer, a sonic codex infused with signs, formulas, and quiet power, demanding the kind of sustained attention that embraces repetition.
For those who still seek inner form in these times, these albums offer profound discovery. They are not for entertainment, but for remembrance; not for escape, but for transformation.
‘The Tower’ and ‘The Hierophant’ - this double release is a twin work of impressive coherence and hypnotic purpose: an artistic revelation of enduring brilliance.
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Source: Press Release / Photo by Christian Wittig
