Six works by Tobias PM Schneid, mostly for seven instruments, played by Ensemble Musikfabrik under Peter Rundel. Schott describes music that draws on the paintings of Robert Delaunay and the writing of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and that takes jazz and rock as central reference points.

Schneid was born in Rehau, Franconia, in 1963 and grew up in Munich and near Augsburg. He studied composition in Würzburg with Bertold Hummel and Heinz Winbeck, and has taught music theory and composition at the Würzburg conservatory since 1997. Prizes came early: the composition prize of the city of Stuttgart in 1987, the WDR's Forum junger Komponisten in 1989, first prize at the first Vienna International Composition Competition initiated by Claudio Abbado in 1991, and the Bavarian State Prize for young artists in 1995. In 1996 he was composer in residence at the University of Manchester. The soloists here are the clarinettist Carl Rosman and the pianist Ulrich Löffler, alongside the ensemble. Rundel conducts throughout, including the solo clarinet piece, as the Apple Music credits show.

Prelude I: Harmonic Encounters opens the disc, followed by weird scenes inside the mirror cages I, both for seven instruments. Vertical Horizon I is a twelve-minute piece for solo clarinet. umbrellas & sewing machines, at over twenty minutes, is the longest work. I'm dancing on the edge of time II is again for seven players. The closing work, the lonely monk's reflections on reprocreational aspects in fractal organizations II, sets a solo piano against the ensemble.

According to Schott, Schneid starts from preformed material, the musical styles and currents that shaped him as a musician. Recognisable quotations are rare. The music emerges as a kind of fusion, with the deep yearnings and sorrows of the blues and echoes of a musical freedom actually lived. His publisher names Ravel and Mahler as strong influences beside advanced forms of jazz and rock. His catalogue runs from symphonies and concertos to a full-length ballet and a live score for Walter Ruttmann's 1927 film Berlin, die Sinfonie der Großstadt, and his works were chosen as German contributions to the ISCM World Music Days in 1989, 1991 and 2006.

CD, Wergo WER 6560 2, released in 2005 in the German Music Council's Edition Zeitgenössische Musik. Total time 70:20.