Mat Martin

Mat Martin (born 19 August 1980) is a British composer, producer, improviser, guitarist, banjoist and player of fretted strings. He is also a Designer.

Martin works across genres, and is mainly known as an accompanist to singer-songwriters such as Kirsty McGee, Joanna Chapman-Smith, Myshkin and Kreg Viesselman. He also composes and improvises experimental music which has been performed by several international free-improvising musicians, and composes and performs for theatre.^[1] A by-product of his compositional practice are gestural abstract charcoal and chalk drawings. His composed work is scored using a combination of traditional western notation and graphics. The visual and sonic style of his experimental work is often quiet, textural and minimal.

Biography

Mat Martin was born in Bath, Somerset and is half British and half French. He grew up in Bristol and studied music in London and Devon. He holds a BA in Music Technology from Rose Bruford College (2001) and an MPhil and PhD from Dartington College of Arts (2010), where he studied composition under Edward Cowie and Alexander Goehr. His professional performance career began in 2003 with early session work for Kirsty McGee's "Frost" album^[2] and subsequent touring of that album. Since then he has performed and recorded with The Brute Chorus, Karine Polwart, Inge Thomson, Joanna Chapman-Smith, Quiet Loner, Guillemots, Boo Hewerdine, Jenny McCormick, Kreg Viesselman, Myshkin's Ruby Warblers, Tim Van Eyken and Truckstop Honeymoon. He has also produced albums for Kirsty McGee, Joanna Chapman-Smith and Quiet Loner. In 2011 McGee's live album No.5, produced by Martin, was awarded Vox Pop for Best Live Album in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.^[3]

Martin's doctoral thesis On The Nature of Fieldwork explores a compositional language based on studying the extramusical through scientific and artistic study.^[4] Pieces which demonstrate this approach have been performed by artists including Rhodri Davies, Pete Wareham, Christopher Cundy and Fyfe Dangerfield. In 2006 his Guitar Quartet Shadow Musics was selected for the SPNM (now Sound and Music) Shortlist.^[5] In 2007 his piece Single Stone for solo Contrabass with optional piano accompaniment was selected for the British and International Bass Forum's "One Minute Wonders" project and premiered by Corrado Canonici. Cairn, for unspecified quartet, was commissioned for the 2008 London Jazz Festival and performed by Pete Wareham and The Final Terror.^[6][7]

In 2011 Martin published A Small Clawhammer Banjo Book.^[8] He is endorsed as a player by the Deering Banjo Company, the Shubb Capo Company and the RotoSound String Company. He is one of a growing number of fretted string players on the British folk scene who are performing new music with the Tenor Guitar, along with Seth Lakeman and Karine Polwart.

Martin co-founded the Hobopop Recordings label with Kirsty McGee in 2007 and continues to co-manage the label with McGee. He designed a number of album sleeves for McGee and others.

Discography

Album credits

• Kirsty McGee – Frost (Park Records, 2004) – Mandolin, Guitar
• Kirsty McGee – Two Birds (Park Records, 2005) – Mandolin, Cittern, Banjo, Guitar, High-Strung Guitar, Vocal
• Kirsty McGee – Sapho & Phao EP (Hobopop Recordings, 2007) – Banjo, Tenor Guitar, Whistling, producer
• Kirsty McGee – Hobopop EP (Hobopop Recordings, 2007) – Banjo, Guitar, Tenor Guitar, Ukulele, Mandolin, Feet, producer
• The Brute Chorus – The Cuckoo and the Stolen Heart (Bumpman, 2007) – Banjo
• The Brute Chorus – Nebuchadnezzar (Bumpman, 2008) – Vocal
• Kirsty McGee – The Kansas Sessions (Hobopop Recordings, 2008) – Banjo, Guitar, Tenor Guitar, Wood Banjo, Ukulele, Washboard, Percussion, Junk, Vocal
• The Brute Chorus – The Brute Chorus (Vandal, 2010) – Banjo
• Quiet Loner – Spectrology (Little Red Rabbit, 2010) – Banjo, Tenor Guitar, Mandolin, producer
• Kirsty McGee & The Hobopop Collective – No.5 [A Live Album] (Hobopop Recordings, 2010) – Banjos, Ukulele, Tenor Guitar, Vocal, producer
• Quiet Loner – There Go The Ghosts – Banjo, Producer (Title Track Only)
• Jenny McCormick – Sweet Demon (Square Peg, 2011) – Banjo, Tenor Guitar
• Joanna Chapman-Smith – Love Me Deeply (Woundup Records, 2012) – Banjo, Guitar, Tenor Guitar, co-Producer
• Quiet Loner – Greedy Magicians (Little Red Rabbit, 2012) – Tenor Guitar, Percussion, Vocal

Single credits

• Kirsty McGee & The Hobopop Collective / The Brute Chorus – Wife / Alligator Teeth (Hobopop Recordings, 2010) – Banjo, producer
• Kirsty McGee – Sandman (Hobopop Recordings, 2013) – Ukulele

Compilation credits

• Various Artists – Now Hear This! 68 (Word, 2008)
• Various Artists – Moonshine, Murder, Mountains & Mudflats (Thames Delta, 2008)
• Various Artists – Trance (OST) (UMC, 2013)

Compositions

• Prelude [Totem I] (2003) – Bcl. / Optional Pf. (for Christopher Cundy)
• Pebble Music [7 Miniatures] (2005) – Solo performer
• Flux [After The Strange Attractors of Edward Lorenz] (2005) – Organ
• Ancient Bone [Totem II] (2006) – Bcl. (for Christopher Cundy)
• Orrery [Corvus / Corona Borealis] (2006) – Solo Resonant Strings (for Rhodri Davies)
• Fire Dances [4 Miniature Flame Studies] (2006) – Hp. (for Rhodri Davies)
• Shadow Musics [18 Chromatic Heiroglyphs in 6 movements] (2006) – 4 Gt.
• Single Stone [A Page in Shades of Quiet] (2006) – Cb. / Optional Pf.
• Crumbs [A Quiet Page of Constellations] (2007) – Amplified Fl. / E Gt. (1 player)
• Cairn (2008) – Quartet (for Pete Wareham & The Final Terror)

References

External links

• Official website