Happy 3/3, everyone! Proud to announce that I have a track on Le Berger’s 3m33s compilation. All tracks are 3 minutes, 33 seconds. I am number 31 on the list.

In other 3m33s news, this track is also featured on this mix by Complex Silence. More info about the mix here.

Proud to announce that my track “Barriers” was selected as a track on futuresequence’s SEQUENCE5. It’s in excellent company, including Olan Mill, Yann Novak, and the duo Andere. And it’s free! Please download and enjoy.

My submission for Futuresequence’s SEQUENCE5. Long-form OP-1 loop mixed with overdrive, reverb and strings.

My live set from the first Tiny Concert at Gigantic Gallery featuring me and Sun Hammer. If there was a theme from this night’s performance, it was giving up control. I have been working with the OP-1 and attempting to make the sounds that come out of it more unpredictable for me, forcing me to shape my improv around its whims. I used a lot of randomization of sample start points in the sampler as well as aleatoric sequencing (such as the tombola sequencer) to achieve this.

So this wasn’t the most perfect of sets, but it pointed me in new and exciting directions to explore.

Photo by Ashley Henderson.

The first is for an Art Party Benefit for the Portland Food Bank at The Slate (2001 NW 19th Ave, #104) on October 13. Free beer and wine, and free admission. I will be playing with my good friend Eyepennies, who starts at 6 PM. I will be playing at 7 PM. For more info, please check out the Facebook Event.

The second is the inaugural concert for Gigantic Gallery’s Tiny Concert Series on October 20 (1720 NW Lovejoy #103). I will be playing with Jay Bodley, aka, Sun Hammer. The concert starts at 7, and will also be free. Despite the name, Gigantic is a tiny space, so if you’d like to come, come a little early to get a seat.

More info about the Tessellations release party. Marc and I will play solo and together at Beacon Sound, with a DJ set from Mike Jedlicka. We’ll have copies for sale and beer to drink. Come Celebrate with us, and say hi!

More information can be found here: Tessellations Release Party

“Tessellations,” my collaboration with Marcus Fischer is now officially released! It’s a limited edition of 250 vinyls available from Optic Echo, Experimedia in North America, Norman Records (UK) and Stashed Goods (UK, link to come). Note that the vinyls come with a download code with a bonus track, “Music for Caverns” as well.

Photo by Seth Chrisman

Marc and I have a long history of playing music together, mostly with me as a guest with his band Unrecognizable Now, in both recordings and live performances. So when Mike Jedlicka of Optic Echo Records asked us to collaborate on an album together, it was a natural progression.

We got together for five live tracking sessions in his studio, Arbor Suite, and recorded nearly 4 hours of long form improvisations on various instruments. I played cello, piano, synthesizer, and guitar, and Marc played his panoply of instruments, including guitar, lap-harp, tuning forks, electric piano, and percussion. We are both used to filling the spectral space by ourselves and it was a learning process to discover musical structures and playing styles that would work for both of us.

After that, it was a long process to shape each improvisation into a finished piece. Our goal was to preserve the feel of the improvisations (some of which were over 20 minutes long), while finding their true shape as a song. To that end, we mercilessly edited, resequenced, overdubbed and processed each improvisation into a piece.

I can say proudly that this is some of our best work and that our collaboration coalesced into a style that is pretty different and adventurous from our solo work. I hope that you all will take a chance on listening to “Tessellations” and it brings you somewhere new in your listening adventure.

I am proud to announce that “Tessellations,” my collaboration with Marcus Fischer is now available for preorders via Opticecho records. All orders will immediately shipped. It will also be available via Stashed Goods (UK), Experimedia, and Norman Records on its official release date of August 28, 2012.

This record was over a year in the making and is the culmination of years of ongoing collaboration with Marcus. The tracks started with live improvisations that were restructured, overdubbed, and resequenced. We both played a wide variety of instruments, including cello, lap harp, tuning forks, synthesizers, guitar, and percussion.

The first continues the ongoing collaboration I’ve had with Marcus Fischer’s band, Unrecognizable Now. “Two Rooms” is a recording by Marc and Matt where they used the room sound of their underground practice space to color their wide-shifting spectra. I contributed several layered cello tracks to this one. This recording is now available as either a gorgeous handstamped CD or a digital release from Kesh.

The second album comes from a long-time friend, Tanner Volz, who records more beat oriented music as Anklebiter. I played on two of the tracks, which are both layered and gorgeous, “Raintree” and “The Lazy Pioneers”. The rest of the album is also worth checking out. More info about “Raintree” here.