“Music has the power to make us forget the apparent separation that we sense from each other as humans”

Markus Root has had a life-long obsession with creating, recording and performing music.

This love started at home - his great grandfather was an opera singer and his grandmother was a classical pianist and organist who often played at church and family gatherings. His older brother played in various bands in the Cape Town music scene in the 90’s and later started producing as well.

“I spent a lot of time with my gran listening to and talking about music  - mostly the classics. At family gatherings we regularly listened to records and had lively discussions and debates about our favourite compositions, composers, artists and recordings. We spent many lazy Sunday afternoons this way”

His musical journey started around the age of 6 - first with piano, then the clarinet. He also sang in the school choir and became interested in the recording process at a very young age:

“As a child my idea of having fun was making crude, noisy “experimental” recordings using anything I could find that made a noise - broken appliances, found objects, old records or cassettes, and home made devices - sometimes I even used musical instruments”

It wasn’t until he was 15 that he found his instrument of choice - the guitar. Soon afterwards he started playing in church and school bands and during his twenties he performed regularly as part of a duo - later recording an album that received great reviews in the local press.

But his love for music transcends the medium itself:

“My fascination with the phenomenon we call sound - the movement of air particles - and the effects that it has on our physiology and our hearts is not just about the sounds we create - its about the way it makes us feel more than anything else. Music has the power to make us forget the apparent separation that we sense from each other as humans. It gives us the means to truly transcend ourselves and our perceived limitations. For me music is about who we are - and about expressing that understanding”