MATTIN - SONGBOOK 5
12", 45rpm
Release Date: March 2014
Label: Disembraining
Catalogue – What Is Not Music #1
http://www.disembraining.com
In May 2013, Disembraining invited Mattin to Australia to conceive a series of works addressing the question ‘What is not music?’ The question refers respectfully to the long-running Australian experimental festival ‘What is Music?’ reframing it as negation in order to investigate -What sounds remain impossible to assimilate? What isn’t music?
Mattin responded by creating the 5th edition of his songbook series: an ongoing work that uses “improvisation as a way or exposing structural clichés in pop/rock music” and “song structures to demystify the so-called spontaneity and freedom of improvisation.”
Songbook 5 was created according to a strict set of conditions generated through an obsessively literal reiteration of the number 5. Yet it is clearly a ‘rock’ record in sound and feeling. As such it may be the most structurally determined ‘’rock’ album ever. An album that holds a mirror to rock’s ‘freedom’, celebrating its own mediation.
Songbook 5 features contributions from Joel Stern and Alex Cuffe (of Sky Needle), Andrew McLellan (of Cured Pink) and the legendary NZ guitarist Dean Roberts (Thela, White Winged Moth, Autistic Daughters).
7-8 May 2013, Melbourne, Australia.
1: 5 musicians record 5 improvised songs of 5 minutes each addressing 5 concepts described in 5x5 word titles
What Isn’t Music After Cage? - Aware Of Its Own Mediation - Stuck In Our Own Trap - Alienation As An Enabling Condition - The Act Acting On Itself
2: Mattin performs a 25 minute concert with 5x5 minute sections structured by 5 instructions based on the song titles given to 5 members of the audience.
3: Mattin records vocals for the 5 songs in the form of a singing lecture at the Victorian College of the Arts. The audience only hears Mattin’s voice (he listens to the backing tracks on headphones).
4: Recordings of parts 1, 2 and 3 are superimposed to create a 25 minute album consisting of 5x5 minute songs.
5: Record released in an edition of 555 copies.
Distribution:
USA – Little Big Chief - brock.kappers [at] gmail [dot] com
Europe – mattin [at] mattin [dot] org
Australia – Disembraining – joel [at] otherfilm [dot] org