Matthew Smith - Archaic (2005)

Autodidactic composer, performer, and painter Matthew Smith represents a tendency among some highly talented artists to cross traditional boundaries and participate in different disciplines; discoveries in one field lead to ideas in another, and the old distinctions between the musical and visual arts are dissolved in what may be called a general field theory of creativity. Smith's music corresponds very closely to his painting, insofar as he applies pitches and sonorities to digital tracks in a manner similar to brushwork and scumbling on canvas. Using his additive-subtractive technique, Smith builds up his Symphony No. 8 in Four Movements (2003) from the raw sounds of six 1/16-size Suzuki violins, eight jaw harps, strings, and percussion and his Symphony No. 4 in Five Movements (2001) from a smaller assortment of stringed instruments. The bowed sounds and overlapping percussive tracks combine into distorted abstract patterns akin to electro-acoustic music, often with eerie, futuristic touches; Smith's use of open strings in fifths also anchors his music in the past by summoning memories of sixteenth century viols. Zeitgeist (2003), the sole work involving live performers, is somewhat less interesting, since its random procedures devolve rather quickly into aleatoric chaos, quite reminiscent of a free improvisation from the 1960s. Innova's sound quality is quite good.


Performers: Heather Barringer, percussion; Zeitgeist; Matthew Smith, 1/16-size Suzuki violin; Heather Barringer, marimba; Matthew Smith, jaw harp; Matthew Smith, strings; Patti Cudd, percussion; Anatoly Larkin, piano; Patti Cudd, xylophone; Matthew Smith, percussion; Patrick O'Keefe, bass clarinet

Tracklist:

Symphony 8 in Four Movements (2003)
for eight jaw harps, six 1/16-size Suzuki violins, strings, and percussion
1 I 13:36
2 II 10:07
3 III 7:22
4 IV 9:07

5. Zeitgeist (2003) 11:04
for bass clarinet, marimba, xylophone, piano, and percussion

Symphony 4 in Five Movements (2001)
for four 1/16-size Suzuki violins and strings
6 I 3:39
7 II 1:48
8 III 6:25
9 IV 3:29
10 V 4:43




3% recovery record is included.

Read more about Matthew Smith here.
Read more about the CD here.

More contemporary American and European music is available at my blog.