Wade Matthews | 1955 | La Chapelle St.Mesmin | France

bass clarinet | alto flute | electronics

 

 

aspirations & inspirations | CS 015 CD

 

 

 

After finishing his doctorate in composition and electronic music at Columbia University in New York, French-born American improviser, composer and author Wade Matthews moved to Madrid, where he helped to found, and co-directs, Musicalibre, the Spanish collective of improvised music responsible for the Hurta Cordel Festival and the bi-weekly concerts at "El Juglar". He is currently president and musical programmer of the Madrid Artists' Collective Cruce:arte y pensamiento.
Besides solo concerts in London, Madrid, Barcelona, New York, Berlin, Tenerife, Palma de Mallorca, etc., Matthews performs in duo with British improvising violinist Phil Durrant, with the Spanish dancer Elena Alonso, and in the trio WSPS with American flutist Jane Rigler and French contrabassist David Chiesa. Matthews has also played one-offs with European improvisers such as Burkhard Beins, Michael Renkel, Andrea Neumann and Peter Kowald (Germany), John Butcher (United Kingdom), Butch Morris (U.S.A.), Agustí Fernández (Spain), Jean Pallandre, Marc Pichlin, (France) etc. He has performed in the festivals of the Experimental Inter-media Foundation (New York), Musique et quotidien sonore (Albi, France), Drodessera (Italy), Hurta Cordel, Puntos de Encuentro, La Alternativa, Radio Horzontal and Madrid en danza/Espacios insólitos (Madrid), Nuevas Propuestas Sonoras (Huelva), Grec, Improvisa and Música Experimental en Metronom (Barcelona), Actual (Logroño), Música española del siglo XX (León), Ressò (Palma de Mallorca), Música Trece (Girona) and Em Pe de pedra (Santiago de Compostela) and in the concert series K-77 and Loplop (Berlin), London Musicians' Collective, Moppomosso and Civilization West (London), La Flibuste (Toulouse), Gracia territori sonor, I.B.A., and Transformadors (Barcelona), Paralelo Madrid and Música en Cruce (Madrid), etc.
He has recorded for the B.B.C in their London studios, for ORTF/France Culture in Paris, R.T.V.E. y R.N.E. in Madrid, as well as two CDs with his trio ZYKLUS and one with his duo FASES. He has also made recordings with Butch Morris (released on "Música en Metrónom") and on CDs by the Swiss trumpeter Markus Breuss, for the Orquesta sinfónica de Madrid and others. Critics have written: "he combines some of the greatest capacities of his instrument; a beautiful sound, avant garde ideas, and an expressive ability that hits home". (El País, 3/9/89) According to El Independiente Matthews is "a man of abundant ideas... ...a constant and enveloping sonic adventure..."