Markus Reuter’s Todmorden 513 is an involving, richly textured and spellbinding composition recalling the more amorphous work of spectral and impressionistic composers but very much an original work. Todmorden is an English town north of Manchester while ‘513’ refers the piece’s construction: a sequence of 513 harmonies and triads generated and combined using an algorithmic technique of Reuter’s own design. While these patterns may be complex they’re possible to detect, at least superficially, so that listening for the changes in texture, harmony, and instrumentation is particularly rewarding.
It helps that the music is powered by a subtle, minimalist pulse, triggering the work’s more noticeable structural changes. Beyond this lesser elements and patterns unfold at different intervals so, like Brian Eno’s conceptual music, it constantly shifts to its own perceptible, yet not always understandable, logic. Employing violins, viola, cello, guitars, organ, glockenspiel, synthesisers and electronics, these instruments mesh together, in ensembles of varying size, creating a kind of gauzy web through which development takes place. Texturally its often like those wispy moments in the orchestral music of Debussy or Messiaen, combined with the tolling crawl of Feldman’s Coptic Light, but proceeding to its own rules. This is a truly stunning piece of music.
