TREE & SEA by Matt Wand. catalogue number: AIRWAVE 012
Released 9th December 2015

-Dendrochronomatics & Oceanographonics in areas: Dogger, Viking, Moray, Forth and Orkney.-

Whilst existing mostly 'on the breadline', from time to time kindly artists, producers and other creative organizations take pity on me and offer up a payed commission to produce sound or music for some larger ambitious thing they have in progress. One of those people that I must thank profusely is Billie Klinger. In this case she required something somewhere between sound design and very low key music to suspend from trees and install amongst a large scale firegarden during a weekend at Woodhorn Museum ... Somewhere north of me but not quite scotland.
The end result was 2 vague travelogues through a huge amount of location recordings and sound effects underpinned by music that I wouldn't normally allow myself the freedom to produce, music at the threshold of stasis, Music with none of the jump cuts I usually employ to counter both my lack of sophisticated technique and my impatience. I felt it was not entirely impossible other people might like to drift their way through these two soundscapes and it seemed the two together made the length of a good old fashioned 'album' almost as if it's some kind of instinct in me? Also it seemed appropriately sombre for a) this time of year and b) the current mental state of the world.
Then I realized that I was at a complete loss as to how to describe this stuff .. Is it Neu-New Age or is it Ambientertainment... Or is it some kind of Bernie Krause goth psuedo Geo-Biophony Cacophony? So I asked a writer friend who had interviewed me for some periodicals more than a decade and a half ago to describe it in a few words. He had co-incidentally popped his head above the parapet recently to quiz me about the deceased Möbius and all things Cluster, the daddies of this sort of stuff and who's body of work should by rights make me ashamed to even attempt music in this style, let alone make it public.
This is what Mr Stuart Wright wrote.

“I first listened to this while editing my Wicker Man in the favelas screenplay. The trickling waters, birdsong and electronic sounds of happy contemplation make for an ideal writing companion. You can forget you’re listening and immerse yourself in the ambience simultaneously. That's the inherent magic of experimental soundscapes where nature and technology are spliced together. You don’t have to pay complete attention, but your interest willl be peaked by the subtle changes that the human hands make happen to chaos. Before you know it waves are crashing on the shore - there’s an app for that these days for those who find silence hard to sleep by. Again the magic begins when the manufactured sounds take centre stage - unfamiliar beats familiar and vice versa. It’s new age and calming. Although is new age music ever going to make you tense. Maybe it’s just new age. Maybe it’s neu age, but it never drops in a motorik beat. It’s ambient like wind chimes on a front porch. The melodies hidden in the oscillations are for you to find. It’s beautiful and expansive. It will wash over you (pun intended) and you will want to pay close attention - with the aid of headphones - to ever nuanced moments. Not a million miles from the mellower phases of neo-classical collective The Rachel’s 1996 album The Sea and the Bells. Although there’s no narrative to Matt Wand’s sea composition. It’s moments. Some will sustain. Some will be fleeting. Enjoy.” 'I think I got carried away a bit… did I even describe it?' S.W.

Well, Stuart, I think you did and I can't thank you enough. I am definitely a million miles away from any familiarity with The Rachel's but the title alone makes me curious. I cross my fingers the Wicker Man in the Favelas screenplay makes it to the screen. Do you need a soundtrack? ;-)

"black eggs and fools’ bells fall from the trees." is a quote from Hans/Jean Arp,

"I'll put it in the sea, or should I stab you with it?" is a quote from his good friend Kurt Schwitters.

Again thanks to Billie Klinger and to all other commissioners of sounds by me.. Most times the brief leads to something I would never ever attempt, think of, and, more importantly, complete without their prodding.
If you are someone who has commissioned me in the past and would like to download this album please get in touch via the bandcamp contact or email for a free code, I owe you that .. And more.

Did my compass deceive me?
m@w&