Origin Bristol, England Role Singer Name Mat Martin | Website www.matmartin.co.uk Years active 2003–present Record label Park Records | |
Occupation(s) Musician, composer, designer Instruments Guitar, Tenor Guitar, Banjo, Ukulele, Mandolin, Percussion, Vocals Labels Hobopop Recordings, Park Records People also search for Kirsty McGee, Myshkin, Rob Turner, Nick Blacka Associated acts Kirsty McGee, Joanna Chapman-Smith, Myshkin Profiles | ||
kirsty mcgee & mat martin - 'the last to understand'
Mat Martin (born 19 August 1980) is a British composer, producer, improviser, guitarist, banjoist and player of fretted strings. He is also a Designer.
Contents
- kirsty mcgee mat martin the last to understand
- Biography
- Album credits
- Single credits
- Compilation credits
- Compositions
- References
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. 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 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.
Martin's doctoral thesis On The Nature of Fieldwork explores a compositional language based on studying the extramusical through scientific and artistic study. 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. 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.
In 2011 Martin published A Small Clawhammer Banjo Book. 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.