Featuring Megan Shung, violin
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Matt Smith
Mastered by Alex Seaver
Artwork by Vanesa Jerick

Turn

From our EP, Living Things. Check it out on...

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/living-things-ep/id819676889

Bandcamp: http://matthewfrederickmusic.bandcamp.com/album/living-things-ep

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Living-Things-EP-Matthew-Frederick/dp/B00IDXV0O6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1392326585&sr=1-1&keywords=Matthew+Frederick

Prism Goggles

So, about this EP. 

As a classically trained composer, I have learned to have my ideas translated through the language of live performance. None would deny the magic of this process, the joy of collaboration and risk.I had always been fascinated by electronic music, but I had a hard time reconciling my feelings about live music with the permanence of electronic music – that is, until about a year ago, when I first decided to make a record. 

I was listening to lot of The Talking Heads at the time, particularly Remain In Light. The story goes that David Byrne did the lyrics for most of those songs by writing down unrelated phrases and pulling them from a hat, and this flipped a switch for me. Each of the songs on my EP are like Byrne’s scraps of paper – little mementos of whatever was going on at the time of their conception, preserved and given new life by bringing them out into an unforeseeable context. I see them as Living Things, to be released into the wild and allowed to thrive.
credits
released 12 February 2014 
Personnel: 

Megan Shung, violin (all songs) 
Hannah Thomas-Hollands, cello (Instant Zen) 
Sean Lyons, viola (Prism Goggles) 

All songs composed, produced, engineered, and mixed by Matthew Frederick 

Mastered by Alex Seaver 

Album art by Vanesa Jeric

Special thanks to Keith Fitch, Steven Mark Kohn, Alex Cooke, Ilya Shapiro, and especially mom.

Ursa

Hilum

Instant Zen

Chasing The Moon

The word “Lacuna” means “gap,” and commonly refers to a missing section of text. It can also refer to the absence of a word in a particular language, and it is from this definition that piece takes its title. I worked on the piece for nearly a month without any thought for a title, and the word was a serendipitous discovery that fits the music perfectly. The so-called gaps in the piece are spaces in between traditional musical elements: intervals in between our standard twelve pitches, the disagreement between tonality and dissonance, and the space between pitch and white noise. This all sounds like the recipe for fairly harsh-sounding work, and sometimes it is. The dramatic arc of the piece begins with the musical problem represented by these gaps, and ends with the problem being solved by their gradual disappearance. The presence of elements of popular music (blues guitar riffs figure prominently) attempts throughout the piece to fill in the holes, and finally succeeds in the timpani-driven conclusion.

Lacuna was commissioned by the Canton Symphony Orchestra, who will premier it in the fall of next season, and was written in the months of January to March 2012. It is approximately ten minutes in duration.

Performed in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music
Conducted by Keith Fitch

Lacuna

I. Quintessence (0:00 - 9:30)
II. Moduli (9:30 - 21:15)

  I never wanted to write this piece. The piano trio is an ensemble with a history almost as illustrious as the string quartet, with stunning examples by almost every composer to whom I credit my influence. Supreme among these is the piano trio of Ravel. Ravel’s trio is one of the only pieces to have ever truly terrified me, chasing me into submitting to the notion that I would never attempt one myself.
  I never wanted to have a voice, either. The question of a composer's voice always struck me as a bit arrogant, as if every one of us needs to be as instantly recognizable as Bartok. I resisted conforming to just one style throughout my entire college carreer, reinventing the wheel each time I began a new piece. The end of this ultimately self-defeating cycle took place in 2010, when I spent eight months working on a brass quintet in a style that was new to me, thinking all the while I had something I could finally stick with for a few pieces. The performance happened, and I hated it. The language was a lie, plain and simple. The overwhelming failure of that piece’s complexity led me to examine earlier pieces of mine that I truly loved, pieces that were honest and uncompromising. I took note of their similarities and realized that, in spite of all my fighting, I did indeed have a voice. In what must have been a moment of brazen impudence in the face of one of my most revered influences, I decided that the best way to consummate this idea was to apply it to a piano trio. Every idea I had about the music I called my own had to be stripped away and allowed to die, in order for me to finally be honest with myself about the music I wanted to hear.
  This is my voice. It is uncompromising, unrelenting, and entirely without contrivance. It is simultaneously personal and selfless. It is my soul, laid bare for all to see.

Performed in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music

Dorothy Ro, violin
Andris Koh, cello
Maggie Morrison, piano

Piano Trio

Presenting an engaging blend of electronica, rock, jazz, and contemporary classical music, Iridas has begun to take shape as one of Los Angeles’ most unique new bands.

Iridas was formed in 2015 by composer/producer/instrumentalist Matt Smith, in an effort to give voice to his demanding musical style. Smith met key members Sean Lyons and Megan Shung while they were in school together at the Cleveland Institute of Music, receiving classical training of the highest standard. Having developed a taste for pop music, the three young musicians sought to find a meaningful interface between the two worlds and began performing as an ensemble one part classical piano quartet and one part rock band, with a dash of live electronic dance music.

The Iridas sound, shaped primarily by composer Matt Smith, reaches deep into music history for influences. The lush harmonies and colors of Maurice Ravel combined with the rhythmic and textural intricacy of Gyorgy Ligeti are apparent in his orchestral and chamber music, but pop music’s sensual, psychedelic underbelly make an appearance as well; jazz fusion, alternative rock, and the LA beat scene have all made an impact. The result is unrecognizable simply as classical crossover - Iridas is something new.