Wrekmeister Harmonies, led by musician and composer JR Robinson, is an experimental music collective. Named after the

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film ''Family Nest'' (1977), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordin ...

movie '' Werckmeister Harmonies'', it combines elements of

drone music Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harm ...

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were al ...

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation w ...

, and heavy metal. Wrekmeister Harmonies typically performs a single composition, often almost an hour in length, beginning with a slow build, shifting into a cathartic middle section, concluding with either a peaceful or disquieting resolution.

Critical response

In 2013, Wrekmeister Harmonies was signed to independent label

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

, toured internationally with Grails and headlined in Europe. Wrekmeister Harmonies' albums have been featured in year-end lists of major publications and were praised by music critics. Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

rated "Night of Your Ascension" as 7.8/10 and listed it among his top ten metal albums of 2015. John Doran of

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

included "Then It All Came Down" among his "Quietus Albums of the Year 2014". ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...

'' selected “You've Always Meant So Much to Me” as one of the “20 Best Metal Albums of 2013,” and Grayson Currin of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' rated the album as 7.9/10. Andy Gensler of the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' listed “Recordings Made in Public Spaces” as one of the top 10 Pazz and Jop albums of 2009.

Notable venues

Wrekmeister Harmonies is known for bringing major

metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

artists to perform in unconventional venues, such as the

Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and arc ...

, the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

, the Pompidou Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

in San Francisco and Chicago's Bohemian National Cemetery.

Individuals associated with Wrekmeister Harmonies

* JR Robinson * The Body * Esther Shaw * Jef Whitehead * Sanford Parker * Mark Solotroff * Bruce Lamont * Jaime Fennelly * Nandini Khaund * Billie Howard * Chanel Pease * Andrew Markuszewski * Lydia Lane Stout * Kate Spelling * Solomon Snyder * Anne Patterson * Tom Hernández *

Fred Lonberg-Holm Fred Lonberg-Holm (born 1 October 1962) is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995. Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert work ...

* Julie Pomerleau *

Chris Brokaw Chris Brokaw (born August 1, 1964) is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come and Codeine. Life and career While studying at Oberlin College, Brokaw met many people who became figures on the American indie rock scene ...

David Yow David Yow (born August 2, 1960) is an American musician and actor born in Las Vegas, Nevada and best known as the vocalist for the noise rock bands Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard. Yow's debut solo album, '' Tonight You Look Like a Spider'', w ...

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compos ...

* Keefe Jackson

Discography

* ''Recordings Made in Public Spaces, Volume 1'' (2009) Atavistic * ''You've Always Meant So Much to Me'' (2013) Thrill Jockey * ''Then It All Came Down'' (2014) Thrill Jockey * '' Night of Your Ascension'' (2015) Thrill Jockey * ''Light Falls'' (2016) Thrill Jockey * ''The Alone Rush'' (2018) Thrill Jockey * ''We Love to Look at the Carnage'' (2020) Thrill Jockey

References

{{Reflist Musicians from Chicago Experimental musical groups