ROME

ROME has been the creative vehicle for Luxembourgian singer / songwriter Jerome Reuter for over a decade already. Throughout this time, his prolific output has seen him traverse several musical plains, building what is by now a genuinely unique, distinctive and recognisable personality.

From the more martial industrial beginnings with those first few works still released by Cold Meat Industry, the sound of ROME has flourished adventurously, touching upon folk, dark ambient, cold wave and even chanson – Jerome has revealed great admiration for such giants as Jacques Brel or Léo Ferré –, not to mention the myriad of different literary references that have acted as decisive inspiration as well, tracing an artistic path that is constantly braving new territories, permanently in exploration mode.

Obviously, we needed to have ROME at Roadburn. The previous description, a mere nudge in the right direction (i.e., your nearest record store!) in case you are less familiar with Jerome‘s work, because we’d need several pages to go into a proper deep analysis of a long and rich discography and band history already, could essentially serve as a template for everything we’re looking for in an artist when we put each edition of Roadburn together every year.

It is a good time for a Roadburn debut too – 2016 alone has seen two remarkable ROME releases, very different from each other. Both The Hyperion Machine and the Coriolan mini-album (the first record with actual “Roman” inspiration Jerome has ever made – the name ROME is a derivation from his name and not originally meant to reference the city itself) are full of stark, deeply touching songs, some of which will surely make it to the setlist that will enrapture Roadburn in April. Actually, if it was up to us, we’d chain Jerome to the Het Patronaat stage and make him play every song from every ROME record — “Well, if it were up to me I’d play every year, as Roadburn is exactly my kind of festival.”

ROME will have their long overdue and much anticipated Roadburn debut at the Het Patronaat, on Thursday, April 20.

Roadburn Festival 2017 will take place April 20-23 at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Tickets are now on sale!

José Carlos Santos