In the late 1970s Rea recorded in Germany with
Earthstar, a band formed by keyboardist
Craig Wuest. Influenced by the German electronic music of the 1970s such as
Tangerine Dream,
Harmonia,
Popol Vuh, and
Klaus Schulze (who would later produce the group's 1978 album
French Skyline), Earthstar consisted of members of Wuest, Zuir, and other musicians in Utica. In 1977 Earthstar signed with Moontower Records in Nashville. Moontower released the band's first album
Salterbarty Tales during the following year. With Schulze's encouragement, Wuest moved to Germany in 1978 and recorded
French Skyline and
Atomkraft? Nein, Danke! for
Sky Records in Hamburg. Rea joined Wuest and other members of Earthstar in Germany in 1979 and 1980 for sessions at Schulze's IC Studio and appeared on both releases. Earthstar participated in the German
Kosmische Musik electronic music scene. Beginning in 1983 he lived in New York City for three years and was involved with the Downtown music scene. Returning to Seattle in the late 1980s, he performed with avant-rock bands (notably Color Anxiety and Fred) and became involved in
free improvisation with
Wally Shoup, Bill Horist, and
Stuart Dempster. In 1988 he helped organize the first Seattle Improvised Music Festival. During the same year, he served as the title character's "sonic alter ego" in the film
Shredder Orpheus. Between 1989 and 1996 Rea spent several years in China and Taiwan, playing over 100 concerts at cultural centers, universities, conservatories, expatriate bars, religious celebrations, on radio, television, and in sports arenas with the Chinese pop star
Zhang Xing. His 1990 solo album
Shadow in Dreams for the state-run China Record Corporation sold 40,000 copies and was cited among the year's ten best releases by Party organ
China Youth Daily. While abroad he organized three unofficial concert tours of China by progressive Western bands (Identity Crisis, The Vagaries, and Land), playing more than 40 concerts in
Beijing,
Chengdu,
Chongqing,
Kunming,
Guangzhou,
Hong Kong, and
Macau, plus a performance at the 1991 Sichuan China International TV Festival viewed by a TV audience estimated in the hundreds of millions. He has performed with
Cui Jian, Wang Yong, Liu Yuan, Liang Heping, He Yong, ADO, and Cobra. He has written about Chinese and other Asian music in
CHIME, the
Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, and the
Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music. His adventures as a foreign musician in the Far East are chronicled in his memoir
Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan. Returning to Seattle in the mid-1990s, Rea worked with Land, formed by
Jeff Greinke, a musician Rea met in Seattle in the early 1980s. The band has included trumpeter Lesli Dalaba, bassist
Fred Chalenor, drummers
Bill Rieflin and
Greg Gilmore, and Chapman stick player George Soler. Rea's ongoing involvements as of 2024 include Moraine, Vaalbara, Reaven Trio, Tempered Steel, Threshold Quartet, Ben McAllister's Guitar Cult, and solo acoustic performances. ==Awards and honors==