My musical upbringing mainly consisted of songwriting / playing electric guitar in bands; experimenting with recording software and MIDI sequencing; and playing in my school jazz band. I later completed a Bachelor’s degree in Glasgow, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where I studied composition with David Fennessy and Dr. Linda Buckley, electroacoustic composition with Dr. Alistair MacDonald, and jazz guitar with Kevin Mackenzie. In 2019, I moved to Aarhus to continue my studies with Niels Rønsholdt, Juliana Hodkinson and Simon Steen-Andersen at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium. I graduated from the Soloist programme in 2024 (my debutkoncert was held at Teater Refleksion on 03.02.2024)
I often work at an intersection between music for instruments and voices; electronic sound; text; video; interactive electronics; and performative media. Recently, my work has engaged with ideas of human frailties and a re-contextualisation of everyday sounds, happenings and automatic social and physical behaviours.
My latest pieces have involved documentary techniques; self-reflexivity; audience participation; repetition; choreography; modified & prepared acoustic instruments acting as disfiguring filters for 19th century music; custom-built, tactile electronic instruments such as paintbrush synthesizers and mini-vibration motors; soundwaves visualised in fire; quotation; a virtual singer and choir singing YouTube comments; gamification; performance of awkward and mundane verbal interactions; unedited field recordings; and spatialised music for street orchestra performed on top of mountains, in train stations, in swimming pools, and in remote communities.
Af: Matthew Grouse
Liv og Musik
Udvalgte værker
Recent commissions have come from SPOR Festival (for Duo Van Vliet); Riot Ensemble / Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (for percussionist Sam Wilson); The Night With… (for The Hermes Experiment); Hebrides Ensemble / Edinburgh Book Festival; The Cumnock Tryst (for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra); Cryptic Glasgow; Sasha Savaloni (guitarist) / Current Resonance; Tom Poulson (trumpeter of Stockholm Chamber Brass); Nevis Ensemble (street orchestra); and Live Music Now (for the Dohnányi String Trio).
In 2023, Silberblau for guitar and electronics was nominated / shortlisted for both an Ivor Novello Award and a Scottish Award for New Music. In 2018, 10 Seconds, written for 9 players and 4-channel audio was awarded the Dorico Award at The Scottish Awards for New Music. During the same year I was Composer-in-Residence with Scotland's Street Orchestra, Nevis Ensemble and was one of 12 composers involved with Yaron Deutsch’s Electric Guitar Etude Project at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
My music has been programmed at festivals such as: SPOR Festival (DK); Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE); Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK); Matera Intermedia (IT); St Magnus International Festival (UK); The Cumnock Tryst (UK); Visiones Sonoras (MX); EviMus (DE); Sound-Image (UK) and at venues such as Newcastle's Sage Gateshead; Edinburgh's Usher Hall; London's Southbank Centre and St John's, Smith Square; Aarhus’ Musikhuset; and Mexico City's Ex Teresa Arte Actual.
I've had the opportunity to work on my music with artists and ensembles such as: SWR Symphony Orchestra; ensemble mosaik; Curious Chamber Players; percussionist Sam Wilson (Riot Ensemble); Hebrides Ensemble; Red Note Ensemble; The Hermes Experiment; Royal Northern Sinfonia; K!ART; Duo Dan/Nie; Ligeti Quartet; accordionist Andreas Borregaard; violinist Anna Jalving; and guitarists Frederik Munk Larsen and Sasha Savaloni.
COLD CALLS, a short collection of pieces associated with my music-theatre work Calls to this number are being diverted, came out on Don’t Look Back Records in 2024. My debut electroacoustic EP Palettes was released on New York based label Not Art Records, and Daily Rituals for amplified quartet and playback, performed by The Hermes Experiment was released on TNW Music’s ‘Live Vol. 1’.
A very exciting product launch (for oboe, clarinet and string trio + video & audience participation) [2022] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0BPO9MbaSk
Keep still, the city can see you (for violin, synth and electronics) [2022] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG5_XDk0eH4
Silberblau (for solo guitar and electronics) [2020] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw617mUwr94&list=PL9Nx5i6vurgG8EJqcyKg6-9mBYDwpD3Fn&index=2
ctrl+Y (for four performers and live electronics) [2021 ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8yZmwV_mLc&ab_channel=MatthewGrouse
Left Right, Left Right (for practice pad, drum trigger, live electronics and video) [2020] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IauCUHBjtQM&ab_channel=RiotEnsemble
Værkliste
See website: https://www.matthewgrousemusic.com/works-list