Marcus Schmickler

Marcus Schmickler (born November 15, 1968, in Cologne) is a German composer, musician, and producer. His music was also published under the Pluramon moniker.

Background Schmickler merges computer music, ensemble composition, performance and scientific subjects. His multi-channel works have been performed internationally, creating unique auditory spaces. He explores techniques like Shepard tones and ring modulations, deepening his compositions through data sonification and otoacoustic emissions.

In 1991, after spending a year in London, he started studying musicology at Cologne University and electronic music and composition Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with H.U. Humpert and Johannes Fritsch. The same year he became a member of the seminal collective Kontakta. 1992 his first solo release appeared with the French label Odd Size. In 1995, he was co-initiator of the DJ collective Brüsseler-Platz-10a-Musik, together with Georg Odijk and Jan St. Werner, associated with the A-Musik record store and label.

Since 1995 he works as a composer, for film theater and radio play. In 1996 he released one of the first fully digitally produced post-rock albums under the pseudonym Pluramon on the German label Mille Plateaux. In 1998, he became a member of the 12-piece electro-acoustic ensemble MIMEO (Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra). In 1999, he completed his diploma in electronic music with Hans Ulrich Humpert and the composition with Johannes Fritsch with a thesis on Gottfried Michael Koenig.

In 2000 he published jointly with Thomas Lehn the CD Bart, which was reviewed to be one of the most impressive synth-improv performances ever. In September 2001 he recorded the Pluramon album Dreams Top Rock with American singer Julee Cruise and went on an extended tour through South America on the initiative of Goethe-Institut in 2003. Since 2004 he has been working on theater projects, with Felix Ensslin. He created numerous works of electronic music, and compositions for choir, chamber ensemble, and orchestra. In 2009 he composed Bonn Patternizationon on behalf of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 and the German Music Council, a sonification with projections based on astrophysical data. Since 2015, Schmickler has worked as faculty at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles County, at Robert-Schumann Hochschule Institute For Music and Media in Düsseldorf and at Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik (IEM) der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. In 2016 he collaborated with Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz and Ensemble Musikfabrik on Richters Patterns, a chamber-music concerto with film based on a painting by Richter. In 2022 he premiered Entwurf einer Rheinlandschaft, a large scale, long-distance performance for 60 musicians across the Rhine.

Marcus Schmickler has received prizes and scholarships, including the Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo, Ars Electronica, from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and curated festival programs in the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Partial discography

Solo Bonner Durchmusterung, etat, 2024 Sky Dice / Mapping the Studio, editions Mego, 2021 Richters Patterns, Tochnit Aleph, 2020 Particle/Matter-Wave/Energy, Kompakt, 2019 Rule of Inference, a-Musik, 2011 Bari Workshop, Presto?!, 2011 Palace of Marvels [queered pitch], Editions Mego, 2010 Altars of Science, Editions Mego, 2007 DEMOS for Choir, a-Musik, 2005 Param, a-Musik, 2001 Sator Rotas, a-Musik, 1999 Wabi Sabi, a-Musik, 1996 Onea Gako, Odd Size, 1993 As Pluramon The Monstrous Surplus, Karaoke Kalk, 2007 Dreams Top Rock, Karaoke Kalk, 2003 Bitsand Riders, Mille Plateaux, 2000 Render Bandits, Mille Plateaux, 1998 Pickup Canyon, Mille Plateaux, 1996 With MIMEO Wigry, Bolt Records, 2011 Sight, Cathnor, 2008 Lifting Concrete Lightly, Serpentine Gallery, 2004 The Hands of Caravaggio, Erstwhile Records, 2001 Electric Table & Chair, Grob, 2000

Collaborations Marcus Schmickler/Jaki Liebezeit / Hayden Chisholm "Timekeepers II", a-Musik, 2023 Marcus Schmicker/Thomas Lehn "Neue Bilder", Mikroton Recordings, 2017 Marcus Schmickler John Tilbury "Timekeepers", A-Musik, 2015 Marcus Schmickler Julian Rohrhuber "Politiken der Frequenz", Tochnit Aleph / Editions Mego, 2014 Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn Live Double Séance [Antaa Kalojen Uida], Editions Mego, 2011 R/S USA, Pan, 2011 Schmickler/Gratkowski/Nabatov Deployment, Leo Records, 2010 Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn Navigation im Hypertext, a-Musik, 2008 Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn Kölner Kranz, a-Musik, 2008 R/S One(snow mud rain), Erstwhile Records, 2007 Marcus Schmickler with Hayden Chisholm Amazing Daze, Häpna, 2007 Marc Ushmi Doshhammer Mixes (without Label), 2007 Claudio Bohorquez, Solo and Accompaniment, Aulos, 2006 Marcus Schmickler/John Tilbury Variety, a-Musik, 2005 Schmickler/Lehn/Rowe/Nakamura Untitled, Erstwhile Records, 2004 Schmickler/Lehn Amplify Balance 7 CD Box, Erstwhile Records, 2004 Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn / Keith Rowe Rabbit Run, Erstwhile Records, 2003 Marc Ushmi meets Reverend Galloway Mein Kopf verlor ein Dach, Whatness, 2003 Soundcultures, Suhrkamp, 2003 Marc Ushmi/Thomas Brinkmann Chevrolet Corvette Max Ernst, 2001 Marcus Schmickler/Thomas Lehn Bart, Erstwhile Records, 2000 2:3 Oswald Wiener zum 65. Geburtstag, Supposé, 2000 Prix Ars Electronica Cyber Arts 2000 Ars Electronica Center, 2000 Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, WDR, 1998 Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik sT, Sieben, 1997 Brüsseler Platz-10a-Musik / Agentur Bilwet 1000 Fehler, Supposé, 1996 Pol Baby I Will Make You Sweat Odd Size, 1995 Pol Transomuba, Odd Size, 1994 Kontakta s/T, Odd Size, 1992