Mattin is a Basque artist working with noise and improvisation. His work seeks to address the social and economic structures of experimental music production through live performance, recordings and writing.
Using a conceptual approach, he aims to question the nature and parameters of improvisation, specifically the relationship between the idea of ”freedom”and constant innovation that it traditionally implies, and the established conventions of improvisation as a genre.
Mattin considers improvisation not only as an interaction between musicians and instruments, but as a situation involving all the elements that constitute a concert, including the audience and the social and architectural space. He tries to expose the stereotypical relation between active performer and passive audience, producing a sense of strangeness and alienation that disturbs this relationship.
Collaborations
Mattin has collaborated with many musicians inlcuding: Eddie Prevost (Sakada), ” ” [sic], Tim Goldie (Deflag Haemorrhage/Haien Kontra), Lucio Capece (NMM), Mark Wastell (Belaska), Rosy Parlane, Radu Malfatti, Taku Unami, Dion Workman, Junko, Billy Bao, Xabier Erkizia, Alberto Lopez, Josetxo Anitua & Inigo Eguillor (Josetxo Grieta), Tim Barnes, Matthew Bower, Oren Ambarchi, Margarida Garcia, Dean Roberts, Klaus Fillip, Bruce Russell, Matt Earle, Campbell Kneale, Werner Dafeldecker, Cremaster, DD Kern, Kouhei Matsunaga, Christof Kurzmann, Matthew Hyland, Joel Stern, Anthony Guerra, Takehiro Nishide, Taku Sugimoto, Yasuo Totsuka, Axel Doerner, Masafumi Ezaki, Tony Conrad, Michel Henritzi and Philip Best.
Mattin has toured Europe, Japan, USA, China, Australia and New Zealand.
He has performed in many international festivals including: ad libitum (Warsaw 2007), Argos (Brussels 2007), Sonorites (Montpelier 2007), Densites (Fresnes en Woevre 2007), Jazz Festival (Mullhouse 2007), Noise Festival (Ljubljana 2007), Sonic Protest (Paris 2007), Escena contemporanea (Madrid 2007), ErstQuake (New York 2006), No Trend (London 2006), Parthenay Festival (Parthenay 2006), LMC festival (London 2005), What is music? (Australia 2004),Improvisations (Adelaide 2004), Avanto (Helsinki 2004), Lieux Communs (Montreal 2004), Observatori (Valencia 2004), Ciberart y MEM (Bilbao 2004), LEM e Improvisa ( Barcelona 2003), Freedom of the City Festival (2003 & 2002 London), Konfrontation 2003 (Nickelsdorf), SKIF 7 ( 2003 San Petersburg & Moscow) , Wrong Festival (Barcelona 2002), MEM (Bilbao 2003, 2002,2001), Ertz 2001 & 2002 (Bera) y Elektronikaldia (2001,Donostia/San Sebastian).
Exhibitions
He had exhibited his sound work in places such as Arthouse (Dublin), Arteleku (Donostia/San Sebastian), Abisal y Sala Rekalde (Bilbao), CataLyst Arts (Belfast), Cubbit Gallery (Londres), ZAIM (Yokohama), Alma (Londres).
http://www.mattin.org
In his solo laptop performance relive, Bernhard Gál recycles sound materials from previous works and sound installations, creating new musical structures live in concert. Fragments of these works are taken apart and reassembled in a quasi-improvised, real-time context. The pool of used sounds ranges from environmental sound recordings (phonographies) to language samples as well as instrumental sounds. Additional materials from current music and art projects are constantly being added to Gal’s sound library, hence his ‘repertoire’ keeps expanding and changing continuously.
A CD release of “relive” is scheduled to be published on the Austrian label Gromoga Records in fall of 2008, hence this concert can be seen as the New York record preview party.
The Austrian artist, composer and musicologist Bernhard Gál has become internationally known as one of the most prolific sound artists of a younger generation. During the past ten years Gál has created around 50 sound installations and media art projects, combining sound, light, objects, spatial concepts and video projections into intense and often site-specific interdisciplinary art works. He also composes music for acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic music. As a (laptop) musician he has been performing around 150 concerts on four continents. He runs the record label Gromoga Records and is director of the Austrian art organization ‘sp ce’. Currently, Gál lives as a freelance composer, artist and curator in Vienna and Berlin where he also taught sound art at the University of Arts in 2006-07. For his music and art projects Gál has received numerous awards, his music has been made available on some 25 audio publications.
http://www.bernhardgal.com/