The remarkable German musician/singer/composer Markus Apitius has just released his fourth album, GOLDEN PARACHUTE. Apitius may be based in Cologne, but he writes and sings in English (handling complex thoughts and language with ease). He also works in a variety of styles, blurring the boundaries between rock, jazz and pop. He plays numerous instruments as well, though the electric keyboard is his bedrock. His musical influences are equally eclectic--Bela Bartok, Buffalo Springfield, Brian Wilson, John Cale, XTC, the Beatles, Syd Barrett and Van der Graaf Generator.
    

    
In his latest CD, Apitius teams up with regular band members Christian Schaal (bass), Matthias Ebbinghaus (percussion), and numerous guest artists (including Michael Peters on sitar) to deliver his songs, most of which have a social bite to them (especially Golden Parachute, a sardonic assault on the greedy businessmen who have jumped capitalism's leaking ship, leaving the rest of us to drown like rats).

Another bitter ballad is Mighty Murdoch, which thanks media king Rupert for all the "beautiful lies" he's told us, lies which have persuaded us to "scrap our altars to make room for our LCDs."

The gifted Apitius can write love songs as well, not to speak of a cerebral (but compelling), thirteen-minute exploration of a story by the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, Epiphany 74, which concludes with these thoughts: "With all our safety nets and desperate attempts, there's still the ghost that leads the madman's hand. Who will step aside and hope to understand?" Visit www.apitius.de or www.myspace.com/markusapitius.