Matt Robertson's involvement in the recent Bjork projects was no accident, his musical ability and inventiveness in producing electronic music is impressive. We spoke to him back in 2011 on a Sonic TALK Special about his work on the Biophillia Tour
He's just released a new album entitled In Echelon, a collection of 9 tracks featuring some brilliant synth work, string arrangments and atmospheres inspired by the idea of surveillance and how we are always monitored. There's even a track called Juno - did we hear the lovely wide tones of a 106 in there?
I liken the surveillance phenomenon to a huge slow moving airship that everyone can see, but because it just hovers around really slowly, after a while people become used to it and eventually ignore it or get used to its presence. A lot of the harmonic ideas are really slow moving, but sometimes against a faster moving background. Also harmonically I think some of it is slightly uncomfortable, but wrapped in a comfortable shell.
The minimal, rich arrangements have a great slow moving atmosphere, with a tinge of menace.
The album is available via Bandcamp and iTunes
A Lot of the inspiration for this came from a Novation Synth Night matt did last year:
We take a look
Supercharged mono synth as plug-in
With the Boss RC-505 MKII
Honey I shrunk the 'king Korg