Blaine L. Reininger – Commissions (2014)

Commissions is a brand new anthology of instrumental soundtrack music by Blaine L. Reininger, the Colorado-born composer and founder member of avant-garde music group Tuxedomoon. Written and recorded between 2008 and 2012, the various theatre and dance productions scored include Electric Girl, New Electric Ballroom, Lithi (Oblivion), Danton’s Death, Double Take, American Buffalo and Antigone.
With the exception of the Antigone segment, most of this twin-set has seen the light of day before via Reininger’s own channels, although this hardly detracts from the enjoyable variety on offer. Rather than sticking solely to one genre, the violinist and composer treads a broad path on Commissions – the Electric Girl portion marries electronica,glitch, some frenetic fiddling and atmospherics, the kind which have filled a few recent John Foxx albums. ‘Aliens’ and ‘Body Electric’ are particular absorbing, as is much of the more recent work Antigone which takes up most of the first disc. ‘House Of Usher’ sounds like Portishead doing their sci-fi thing without the beats, while ‘Chopstick Bounce’ reminds this listener of Elliot Sharp’s pulsating oeuvre.

Disc two has previously appeared as Music for Dance and Theatre and includes some of BLR’s finest instrumental moments, certainly reminiscent and on a par with his earlier Crepuscule work and his band contributions of yore. ‘Circulation’ wouldn’t sound out of place on a psychological horror film soundtrack, ‘Shadow Waltz’ represents Reininger’s more typical string-driven thing and ‘Attribue a Bernie H’ has an air of the John Barry about it (or should that be Monty Norman…).
“Since I moved to Greece I’ve been commissioned to compose music for dance and theatre on a more frequent basis than before. The difference between this work and my own songwriting, in and out of Tuxedomoon, is that the subject matter is supplied to me beforehand and the results are supervised and edited by someone else. The contrasts and conflicts between my own familiar set of artistic notions, and those of a stranger, can give rise to some surprising and delightful results which provide new paths and methods for my further work.”