Rome is a Luxembourgish

neofolk Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumenta ...

band founded in November 2005 as a main output for the songs of Jérôme Reuter (born August 2nd, 1981) of

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. Though Reuter is the main creative force in the band, he performs live with a range of musicians who also contribute performances on various studio recordings. In early 2006 Rome was signed to the Swedish record label

Cold Meat Industry Cold Meat Industry was a Swedish independent record label established in 1987 by Roger Karmanik, which specialized in niche music genres such as dark ambient, death industrial, and neoclassical dark wave. History From its inception, Cold ...

. Rome has since signed with the

Trisol Music Group The Trisol Music Group, GmbH (or Trisol), is a German business group and record label headquartered in Dieburg. Owning multiple sublabels, they specialize in producing musical works pertaining to darkwave, dark folk, gothic rock, deat ...

record label as of 2009. Rome is considered one of the most important acts within the neofolk genre.

Background

Reuter previously recorded music under the name Reggie Fain, which was influenced by

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

. He was also a member of an

Oi! Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement was ...

band called the Skinflicks, and a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band called Mack Murphy and the Inmates, where he performed under the name Mack Murphy. Reuter's first recording as Rome was the EP ''Berlin'', which was recorded in Patrick Damiani's studio in Germany in December 2005. Damiani, a

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

, has been considered a full-time member of Rome since 2008. In 2009, violinist Nikos Mavridis joined the group, although he left after being conscripted into the Greek military. Rome has had live performances featuring Die Weisse Rose on drums.

Musical style

According to Paul Simpson, the band's sound combines "military drumming and horns with atmospheric electronic textures and ethereal acoustic guitars, as well as samples and poetic lyrics often relating to war-related themes, as well as more universal topics such as love, pain, and death." Many of his album have historical themes, such as ''Flowers From Exile'' and ''A Passage to Rhodesia'', which focus on the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and Rhodesian Civil Wars, respectively. Reuter has cited

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (, ; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, l ...

Léo Ferré Léo Ferré (24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a French-born Monégasque poet and composer, and a dynamic and controversial live performer, whose career in France dominated the years after the Second World War until his death. He released s ...

Julius Evola Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian philosopher, poet, painter, esotericist, and radical-right ideologue. Evola regarded his values as aristocratic, masculine, traditionalist, heroic, and defiantly ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

, and

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...

as influences on his music and lyrics.

Discography

Albums

* '' Berlin''(2005) * ''Nera'' (2006) * ''Confessions D'Un Voleur D'Ames'' (2007) * ''Masse Mensch Material'' (2008) * ''Flowers From Exile'' (2009) * ''Nos Chants Perdus'' (2010) * ''Die Æsthetik der Herrschaftsfreiheit'' (2011) * ''Hell Money'' (2012) * ''A Passage To Rhodesia'' (2014) * ''Coriolan'' (2016) * '' The Hyperion Machine'' (2016) * ''Hall of Thatch'' (2018) * '' Le Ceneri Di Heliodoro'' (2019) * ''The Dublin Session'' (2019) * '' The Lone Furrow'' (2020) * '' Parlez-Vous Hate?'' (2021) * '' Defiance'' (2022) Digital EP * '' Hegemonikon'' (2022)

Live albums

* ''Hansa Studios Session'' (2017) * ''Hansa Studios Session II'' (2021)

References

External links

Cold Meat Industry official web site

Trisol official web site

Rome Facebook
{{Authority control Neofolk music groups Apocalyptic folk musicians Luxembourgian musical groups