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Pat Mastelotto (USA, drummer of the famous rock band King Crimson for more than 10 years) and song writer and multi-instrumentalist Markus Reuter (Germany, from the popular CENTROZOON) have literally found each other: in a train compartment on the way from Munich to Wrzburg in Germany.

This first incidental contact happened almost 5 years ago and through the years it became clear that the personal friendship had to be deepened by a musical project. 2004 they performed their first joint concert in Helsinki, Finland, and at the beginnings of 2005 they decided to produce an album and to initiate an
active band project.

With their debut album TOTEM, TUNER presents electro-acoustic avant rock at its best. A complex and versatile album made from one piece. Fascinating and enthralling. Despite of, or maybe even just because of the contemporary approach of the composition the album extremely rocks. You easily find yourself with songs stuck in the head, of which you never would have supposed youd remember. Thus most of the TOTEM tracks are unpredictable and constantly on the move, but after a while the listener spots the melodic and rhythmical cornerstones of this complex music.

A great deal of fascination definitely originates from Mastelottos earthy and at the same time experimental drumming. Yet in the 80ies these grooves made several songs worldwide number-one hits, like e.g. "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" by Mr Mister.

Markus Reuter is a virtuoso guitarist (he plays a touch guitar, an instrument with the pitch range of a piano.) With TUNER in turn he distinguishes more by his playful secureness in handling the modern digital and analogue electronics. Reuter focuses on the composition. There are, for example, running several musical themes through the album, which reappear similar to classical music in the most divergent forms and adaptations. His sounds are limited to the basics, like rhythm guitar, Hammond organ and bass, mixed with experimental vocals and electronics.

TOTEM by TUNER is the concentrated expression of the musicians art. Untinged from solos and superfluous elements the music spreads a mystical and playful atmosphere. Its a more than felicitous debut of this avant rock duo.

By the way by working in modern digital software (Ableton LIVE), some samples from friends like the Austrian performance artist Rene Stieger, Adam Jones from TOOL, sound artist Michael Peters, jazzrock drummer Dennis Chambers, Trey Gunn and Robert Fripp of King Crimson, were manipulated into new original sounds for the album.

TOTEM also contains the single Mouth Piece, a hovering Drum'n'Bass instrumental with a great video enclosed with the CD.