ROME

Martial industrial/neo-folk project Rome was founded in Luxembourg by Jérôme Reuter in November 2005. The group's sound combines military drumming and horns with atmospheric electronic textures and ethereal acoustic guitars, as well as samples and poetic lyrics often relating to war-related themes, as well as more universal topics such as love, pain, and death. The group signed to Swedish industrial/dark ambient label Cold Meat Industry in 2006, releasing the EP Berlin and full-length Nera that same year. Sophomore album Confessions d'un Voleur d'Ames followed in 2007, co-produced by Reuter and new member Patrick Damiani. Issued in 2008, the Masse Mensch Material album was Rome's final release on Cold Meat Industry. Nikos Mavridis joined Reuter and Damiani in 2009, and the group signed to German label Trisol; the EP To Die Among Strangers and more acoustic-based full-length Flowers from Exile appeared on the label by the year's end. The year 2010 saw the release of the L'Assassin EP and Nos Chants Perdus full-length, which increased the group's usage of acoustic instruments, including strings, accordion, and percussion. Rome's most ambitious project yet, the triple album Die Æsthetik der Herrschaftsfreiheit, appeared the next year, marking Rome's return to being primarily a solo project of Reuter. The album's discs were released individually in 2012, followed by new album Hell Money. The EP Hate Us and See If We Mind appeared in 2013, leading up to another ambitious release, 2014's A Passage to Rhodesia, initially released as a box set containing two full-length compact discs, a 10" vinyl single, and a DVD containing music videos and an interview with Reuter. A Passage to Rhodesia's first disc was released individually in 2015. ~ Paul Simpson