M I C H A E L A . M U L L E R
Nearly two decades into his career as co-founder for the ensemble Balmorhea, Michael A. Muller deepens his compositional exploration with the March 2024 release of Mirror Music on Deutsche Grammophon.
Writing & producing from his Elyria Sound studio in LA, Muller’s work is wholly experiential; evading trope as a rule and existing in a space between the darkly occluded and the atmospherically spacious, with wide-reaching references from 1950s jazz to 19th century classical music to contemporary avant-garde and ambient realms.
Mirror Music is a study in reflection. Formed by the inexplicable harmony of human connection and one’s impermanence in the wider scheme of self, existence and place; Mirror Music is at once holding out a magnifying glass while offering an open window to an ever-expanding cosmos.
With each track, Muller’s compositions are expanded through collaboration with 11 different artists, including dark & sonorous vocals from Hania Rani, modular synthesized refractions from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, and lonesome desert timbres from Tortoise’s Douglas McCombs.
Together, the pieces in Mirror Music form a cohesive movement through an assembly of two halves—a diptych of images braided into a single vision; holding a unified form whilst flashes of errant and haunting light refract through the proverbial glass.
MIRROR 8 (ft. Hania Rani)
4k via YouTube
DIRECTOR RICH STAPLETON
CINEMATOGRAPHER JAMES MESSINA
STARRING BRIDGET GAO
FIXED SHADOW
DIRECTOR ANDREW GALLO
STARRING MARC MENCHACA
CINEMATOGRAPHER PATRICK EGGERT
STEADICAM JUSTIN BROWNE
1ST AC KEVIN ANDERSON
LOCATION SOUND MICHAEL A. MULLER
PA ALEX NOLAN
COLOR KAITLYN BATTISTELLI
LOWER RIVER
DIRECTOR PETER LIVERSIDGE
EDITING & MANIPULATION LEVIN HAEGELE & PETER LIVERSIDGE
GATHERED FOOTAGE BENEDIKT H. HERMANNSSON
OFFICIAL RELEASES
Chronological, Descending