Mr. Reynolds’ Opus

Though Reynolds is a vegan, his musical appetite might best be described as omnivorous.

WALK INTO COMPOSER GRAHAM Reynolds’ East Austin studio, and the first thing you’ll notice, perhaps surprisingly, is the books. There are two whole walls of them: floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with hundreds of music books, naturally, but also cookbooks and novels, comics and zines, science fiction and history. On the stifling July afternoon when I visited, a coffee table was crowded with the work of Maria Sibylla Merian, a German entomologist and illustrator who lived during the late 1600s. Merian, one of the first scientists to directly observe and document butterfly metamorphosis, was a pioneer in an era when insects were commonly described as “beasts of the devil.” Reynolds is reading everything he can find about her, he says, as part of his research for a potential new project, something he’s calling “an insect opera.”

What does that even sound like? Reynolds wonders the same thing, but an eclectic project like this would be perfectly in character for the 48-year-old. Though he’s a vegan, his musical appetite might best be described as omnivorous. Reynolds makes music with dance companies, symphonies, filmmakers, actors, artists, and scientists in genres including but not limited to classical, jazz, electronic, punk, and noise. He’s scored compositions for a vast array of projects, from the movie to a dance performed in Kyoto by members of the Japan Women’s Baseball League. His latest score is for the film adaptation of the novel , in theaters now. He has twice destroyed