Biography
Jonas Reinhardt serves as the musical alias for Jesse Reiner, an electronic musician based in San Francisco who draws creative fuel from the analog textures, earthy moods, and entrancing pulses pioneered in the 1970s by figures such as Jean Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. Across his output the sonic palette has shifted repeatedly, opening with the kosmische pulsations that defined his self-titled 2008 debut and later incorporating disco rhythms on the 2013 album Mask of the Maker. Following the 2014 release of Ganymede, an experimental science-fiction soundtrack, subsequent full-length projects such as 2022’s A Ragged Ghost have taken on the character of cinematic ambient works.
Although Reiner had performed in other musical contexts prior to adopting the Jonas Reinhardt name, he maintained a longstanding affinity for electronic music of the late 1960s and 1970s; that interest led him to acquire a Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1 during the mid-1990s. He later pursued formal training in music synthesis at the Harvard Electronic Music Center, an approach he continued to explore even while participating in additional bands. The Reinhardt moniker first appeared with the 2008 Kranky album Jonas Reinhardt, which had been foreshadowed by the digital EP Modern by Nature’s Reward. The project soon grew into a complete ensemble featuring Trans Am’s Phil Manley on guitars, Mi Ami’s Damon Palermo on drums, and Citay’s Diego Gonzalez on bass; together they recorded Powers of Audition, issued in 2010 and distinguished by its fusion of Reiner’s precise earlier aesthetic with live instrumentation.
Reiner next brought his expansive, atmospheric textures to the Not Not Fun label, which issued the third album Music for the Tactile Dome in 2011. That same year the 12-inch EP The Prime Revealer surfaced on Great Pop Supplement. In 2012 he joined Abyss of Fathomless Light for the noisy industrial set Rusting Ciphers of a Forgotten Sky, a limited cassette issued by VCO Records in hand-sewn packaging. Also in 2012 the Foam Fangs 12-inch EP appeared on 100% Silk, Not Not Fun’s dance-oriented subsidiary, serving as preparation for the full immersion into cosmic disco that became Mask of the Maker. Released by Not Not Fun in 2013, the album included expanded personnel such as Zombi’s Steve Moore.
Reiner revisited the throbbing ambient drones of his initial work on the 2014 album Ganymede, conceived as the soundtrack to a science-fiction film of identical title and issued by Constellation Tatsu as a limited LP/DVD package. His sixth studio album, Palace Savant, followed on Further Records in 2015. The split EP The Encyclopedia of Civilizations Vol. 1: Egypt, shared with Jürgen Müller—the pseudonym employed by Norm Chambers, also known as Panabrite—came out via Abstrakce Records in 2017. The following year Stimulus Progression released the EP Gonzalez & Reinhardt, while Conclave Surge appeared on Deep Distance. Trouble in Mind put out A Ragged Ghost in 2022, a meditation on mortality that references both KPM library music and early-twenty-first-century ambient techno.
Although Reiner had performed in other musical contexts prior to adopting the Jonas Reinhardt name, he maintained a longstanding affinity for electronic music of the late 1960s and 1970s; that interest led him to acquire a Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1 during the mid-1990s. He later pursued formal training in music synthesis at the Harvard Electronic Music Center, an approach he continued to explore even while participating in additional bands. The Reinhardt moniker first appeared with the 2008 Kranky album Jonas Reinhardt, which had been foreshadowed by the digital EP Modern by Nature’s Reward. The project soon grew into a complete ensemble featuring Trans Am’s Phil Manley on guitars, Mi Ami’s Damon Palermo on drums, and Citay’s Diego Gonzalez on bass; together they recorded Powers of Audition, issued in 2010 and distinguished by its fusion of Reiner’s precise earlier aesthetic with live instrumentation.
Reiner next brought his expansive, atmospheric textures to the Not Not Fun label, which issued the third album Music for the Tactile Dome in 2011. That same year the 12-inch EP The Prime Revealer surfaced on Great Pop Supplement. In 2012 he joined Abyss of Fathomless Light for the noisy industrial set Rusting Ciphers of a Forgotten Sky, a limited cassette issued by VCO Records in hand-sewn packaging. Also in 2012 the Foam Fangs 12-inch EP appeared on 100% Silk, Not Not Fun’s dance-oriented subsidiary, serving as preparation for the full immersion into cosmic disco that became Mask of the Maker. Released by Not Not Fun in 2013, the album included expanded personnel such as Zombi’s Steve Moore.
Reiner revisited the throbbing ambient drones of his initial work on the 2014 album Ganymede, conceived as the soundtrack to a science-fiction film of identical title and issued by Constellation Tatsu as a limited LP/DVD package. His sixth studio album, Palace Savant, followed on Further Records in 2015. The split EP The Encyclopedia of Civilizations Vol. 1: Egypt, shared with Jürgen Müller—the pseudonym employed by Norm Chambers, also known as Panabrite—came out via Abstrakce Records in 2017. The following year Stimulus Progression released the EP Gonzalez & Reinhardt, while Conclave Surge appeared on Deep Distance. Trouble in Mind put out A Ragged Ghost in 2022, a meditation on mortality that references both KPM library music and early-twenty-first-century ambient techno.
Albums
