Interview with Pat Mastelotto from 2017

Stick Men is a unique power trio. Founded by legendary and still cutting edge bassist / Chapman Stick artist, Tony Levin, Stick Men continues to expand the horizons of modern progressive music. With the departure of fellow Stick artist Michael Bernier, Austrian touch guitar master, Markus Reuter, has joined King Crimson band-mates Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto for one of the most impressive forays into modern music. Absalom represents the first recorded portion of a planned longer CD release from Stick Men.

My impression of Absalom is that with the first listen, you’ll likely immediately be drawn into the expansive diversity of styles, sounds, and textures spread through this highly enjoyable and musically advanced EP. I have been listening to this collection for several weeks, and I can only say that the songs are growing even more on me. Each listen gives the opportunity to hear a different relationship of sounds I hadn’t noticed on the prior listen. This is very, very good music of our era. I highly recommend this album.

Moody and ambient music creates the format for these sedate soundscapes. There aren’t huge variants here, and everything moves very slowly, but it never feels redundant or samey either.

This new five-CD collection is pretty amazing. I've said before, and will repeat it here, that this new version of King Crimson might well be the best lineup they've had, particularly in terms of live shows.

It would be easy to just classify this disc as strange atmospheric music.

Robert Fripp's collaborations in the late 1980s and early 1990s with David Sylvian, in retrospect, clearly laid the groundwork for King Crimson's album Thrak.

This is an EP that’s tied to a graphic novel.

Markus Reuter is a very talented musician, and he surrounds himself with other talented cohorts. This instrumental set showcases that quite well.

This mostly instrumental album is released on Djam Karet’s new label. In fact, Gayle Ellett from Djam Karet guests on the disc, along with quite a few more notable names.

If you like instrumental music that's experimental and challenging, you should give this a try. There a real freeform vibe to a lot of it.

I had never seen the mighty King Crimson play live before - not surprising, as I was only ten years old when the band last played my home town in 1974!

The excellent “Two of a Perfect Trio” tour was a well-publicized and equally well received series of concerts featuring the bands of King Crimson legends Tony Levin and Adrian Belew.

King Crimson has one of the most interesting and complicated histories in all of progressive rock. The lineup is one of the most dynamic, too.

It seems that there is quite a bit of live material being released from this version of King Crimson. That's a great thing because this line-up might be the best ever.

This is a short (roughly 20 minutes) EP that should definitely appeal to fans of modern King Crimson.

Both Gary Husband and Markus Reuter are legendary musicians who have been involved with many projects over the years.

Everyone on this release is exceptionally skilled. The majority of them are frequently featured in Music Street Journal reviews.

Anyone who has heard anything from Stick men will know what to expect here.

This is a unique and quite intriguing album. It's likely to make my best of 2019 list.

This double CD compilation is an interesting and unique collage of multiple percussive styles given to a wide palette of genres and colors therein.

There is definitely an industrial sort of vibe to this cut. In fact, a lot of it seems close to Tool or even Nine Inch Nails.

Markus Reuter in combinations with various musicians has created quite a catalog of intriguing instrumental progressive rock. This new collection with Tim Motzer and Kenny Grohowski is no exception.

This is a double disc set. I believe that it was also released at one point in time as two single disc sets.

While this is released under Xavi Reija's name, the full lineup here is full of exceptional musicians. Reija handles the drums while Tony Levin delivers bass, standup bass and Stick.

When King Crimson reformed after the 80s period, there were definitely elements of that period still present in their sound. 

This is classical music, but not in the traditional sense. It’s more like the freeform classical that emerged in the early part of the 20^th Century. Yet, it’s also ambient and space music. Is it rock? No, definitely not. It is, however, progressive music.

This new release is essentially a single. Well, that's only so true.