The last two weeks have featured a surprising amount of circular breathing.

Starting with Ned Rothenberg, who was outstanding as usual. He played a duo show with Ayman Fanous (5/11 at a church in Foggy Bottom).  He did one solo piece on alto sax, as well as duos making use of shakuhachi, clarinet, and bass clarinet. Amazing stuff. His new solo clarinet record ("World of Odd Harmonics" on Tzadik) is also excellent. Here's a sample - not from this concert, but recent and similar material:



Then International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), (5/17 at Atlas) whose program included a solo bassoon piece that required circular breathing. During that passage, the performer made a porcine snort with each breath. I wonder if that's a function of how much air it takes to work a bassoon vs. a sax or trumpet?

Then Travis Laplante and Peter Evans (5/19 at Back Alley Theater): The final piece of Laplante's set was a long theme and variations form built on a long chant like melody - rendered beautifully in "normal" tones then used as the basis for a series of intense psuedo-polyphonic episodes. I think this is the studio version, it's only the tune that he opened and closed the piece with at the show:

<p><p><a href="http://travislaplante.bandcamp.com/track/the-tear-dam">The Tear Dam by Travis Laplante</a></p></p>

Peter Evans performed what seemed like a quartet for two trumpets, elephant and whale. He played all the parts himself simultaneously on one trumpet.

The Low End String Quartet is commissioning two new pieces, to be premiered in Reston, Virgina on April 14th.

One piece is coming from cello superstar Zoe Keating. The other is from experimental guitar virtuoso Sarah Lipstate (aka Noveller).



I'm having some trouble embedding the video here... so you have to click the link to see the video about our project. We're doing a kickstarter-style fundraiser, but on a different platform. One that comes with matching funds and is nonprofit so donations are tax-deductible.

Learn more and join in here: http://bit.ly/yNpdDj

Repetition Meditation 1 by Jonathan Matis

Here's a demo of a new piece I'm working on. It's scored for 2 electric guitars and 4 horns. The recording uses fake horns. I'm on the prowl for live human horn players who might help me make an actual recording.

Score is posted here.

I'm working on some new music, commissioned by a dance company. It's written for a sweet duo: bass clarinet and cello. I love the way those two instruments sound together.

The recording sessions have gone very well. Hiring awesome players is definitely the way to go. They got everything done in one or two takes.

We got through the solo bass clarinet music so fast that we had some time to spare before the cellist arrived; so we did a short little improv track together. This won't be included in the dance piece, so from my (metaphorical) editing room floor to you:

Bass Clarinet - Guitar duo by Jonathan Matis

Credits:
Ben Redwine: Clarinet
Me: guitar
mixed by TJ Lipple

Please enjoy.

Navel gazing is unamerican.
Amnesia is patriotic.
Together we forget.
Together we repeat.
Together we struggle.
Together we talk ourselves out of failure.

Our favorite songs are the saddest ones.
We love the story of realizing we were wrong all along.
We love that song. We can't get enough.
We hate that story.
We refuse to listen to that story.
We love that song.

We love the songs about sadness and suffering.
About longing and loss.
About wanting and wanting.

see the whole concert here.

Our next performance of the Low End String Quartet is coming up soon:Tues. Sept. 21at Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, Maryland.Part of the Sonic Circuits Festival.
We're performing along with Fennesz (from Austria) and Janel & Anthony + Arturas Bumsteinas.
Very exciting. They told me that this show will sell out. Click here for tickets ($20).
Anthony, of Janel & Anthony, was my guitar teacher last year. He's amazing. So is Janel. There are many reasons to attend this performance. The music being at the top of my list. Check the links above and enjoy.See you there?
Facebook event page: click here and RSVP, invite your friends, etc, etc.

Recorded live last week at "Word Free DC"

It's been a crazy few weeks, work-wise, and is shaping up to remain crazy for at least two more... but I just finished a whole bunch of things that all had to be done at the same time. What just happened?

• In the last two weeks, I got four proposals submitted to my county arts council. (They have all of their deadlines for the year in a three-week period, which is really awesome) Two from my nonprofit, and two from me as an individual artist. This year, I successfully delegated one of the Improv Arts proposals (thanks, Daniel!). We'll see if any of them work, but if funded we might:

1. do after-school shows at Joe's and the College Park Community Center;
2. hire a marketing strategy consultant to help us figure out how to put together all the different threads of our organization's communications - which is now a huge clusterf***;
3. "commission" myself to develop more solo repertoire - so I can do more concerts like the one I did back in March;
4. and take composition lessons from Alexandra Gardner.

• I finished up a big job that had a very short timeframe: producing original (recorded) music for a dance / theater show that goes up next weekend. I'm really happy with the results, and the process. This one had enough of a budget that I was able to hire some great people to play on it, I recorded all the live tracks at home, then took it to a professional studio and got it mixed right. The end result is nice. Sounds so much better than what I can do by myself in my home project studio. (for info about the performances next weekend, see facebook event)
  
  
• That job led to a booking for Low End String Quartet: we're doing "street performances" on May 15/16 in Reston, Virginia as part of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival. Our regular cellist is out of town that weekend, but I lined up Gordon Withers to join us again (he played with us at Comet last summer) and the contract and associated paperwork is all done done done. We'll be at Reston Town Center's "South Market Promenade" Saturday, May 15, at noon, 2:45pm, and 4pm; Sunday, May 16, 11:30am. Free free free. Hopefully the weather will be nice.
  
  
• I'm working hard promoting "Word Free DC" on May 21st. That's proving to be a challenging task, but today we got some love from The Pink Line Project. Hopefully we'll get some more mentions around town in the coming weeks.

I'm also delighted to be back on my bike after a week. The weather is perfect and my nuts don't hurt! Yay!
Now I'm going to Island Style, where the non-dairy flavors still deserve the name "ice cream."
Later.

So, I have a concert coming up on Saturday. I'm performing, as well as three other bands. There's an "event" set up in Facebook for it. My parents are coming. See that 2nd comment above? It's on the event's "wall" on Facebook. That's my mom saying "We wouldn't miss this for the world! You are the best!"

Thanks, mom. That's not embarrassing at all. Really.