A progressive rock supergroup called Stick Men centers its sound on the Chapman Stick, a fretted electric polyphonic chordal instrument designed to handle multiple musical lines at the same time. The lineup unites King Crimson alums Pat Mastelotto and Tony Levin with German multi-instrumentalist Markus Reuter, merging art rock and progressive metal textures through an improvisational approach documented on the studio albums Open (2012), Prog Noir (2016), and Tentacles (2022).
The project originated with Tony Levin’s 2007 solo LP Stick Man, a set of pieces written and performed exclusively on the Chapman Stick. What began as a solo effort became a working trio in 2010 with the release of the debut album Soup. The following year brought the improvisational EP Absalom, and the all-instrumental full-length Open appeared in 2012. Deep, issued in 2014 and anchored by the 11-minute tone poem “Whale Watch,” pushed the band toward heavier rock dynamics. That same year saw the arrival of Power Play, their first concert album, followed by three live collaborations: Midori with King Crimson’s David Cross in 2015, Roppongi with Mel Collins in 2017, and Owari with English jazz and rock keyboardist Gary Husband in 2020. During this period the group recorded its fourth studio album, Prog Noir, which introduced several vocal pieces. A six-year studio hiatus ended with the 2022 EP Tentacles, after which the concert album Umeda appeared in 2023.
