NEW ALBUM REQUIEM – OUT NOW ON MUTE / FUTURE DAYS MUSIC
“Requiem is a poetic and moving composition from a musician who is still at the vanguard of contemporary music” – The Quietus
“…powerful stuff” – Electronic Sound
“Whether you choose to hold the ecological themes in mind or simply revel in its textures, Requiem is a gripping listen” – Uncut lead review 8/10*
IRMIN SCHMIDT’s new album, Requiem, is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute / Future Days Music (Spoon).
Requiem is an album of exquisite balance between human-made and nature-produced sounds. The album – presented in two sections – sees Irmin Schmidt playing prepared and unprepared piano alongside environmental recordings of the sounds of nature that surround his home in Southern France.
“In nature”, Schmidt explains, “I find so much music, and that becomes a kind of dialogue”. After hearing a nightingale sing in his garden that he felt compelled to record, Schmidt began to build up these sounds – recording water, bird and frog noises and his local surroundings – in a form of personal ritual. The piano that accompanies his environmental recordings – prepared and unprepared – was spontaneous and, in the tradition of Can’s recordings, some of these spontaneous compositions were edited at a later date, with the help of long-time collaborator René Tinner.
Schmidt, who will be 89 years old in 2026, explains that Requiem is a meditation on remembrance, on loss and commemoration. The slow melding and manipulation of this environmental and piano recordings creates a liminal space that allows the listener to embark on their own journey of contemplation.
The preternatural, meditative movement between Schmidt’s piano and recordings brings both present and distant memories into view, their symbiosis creating one of Schmidt’s most affecting and inspiring works to date.
Requiem is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally
Irmin Schmidt – Requiem Tracklisting (cat # SPOON70)
Part 1 (23:12)
Part 2 (17:51)
ABOUT IRMIN SCHMIDT
After an extensive classical education as pianist, conductor and composer, Irmin Schmidt – who studied under Stockhausen and Ligeti – co-founded Can in the late 60s, combining classic new music with rock and jazz. Outside of his work with Can,
Schmidt has released over a dozen solo albums and written an opera, Gormenghast, based on the novels of Mervyn Peake. The opera, which originally premiered in 1998, was recently performed at the Linz Opera in Austria. For his contribution to art and culture he was awarded the highest honours in France, the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in Germany, the Bundesverdienst Orden. In 2018 Faber Social published Can – All Gates Open, a two-part book – the first section is Can’s biography, written by Rob Young, and the second section is Can Kiosk, a collage of diary entries and interviews edited and written by Irmin Schmidt. His new album, Requiem, follows 2018’s 5 Klavierstücke, a piano work using prepared and unprepared piano. 2020’s Nocturne, a live album documenting his Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival performance followed.
