slowly floating through a garden, dreaming or star-gazing.
Sakuhatchi (japanese flute) after intro, balinese pots'n pans to top it off, and as final a computer crash as end. 

Just wave and smile...

We recorded the beat of our big Gong into the loopstation, and the rest sort of happend by itself one fine October afternoon.

See 'Space between the Notes' for the story on the static noise!

Gong Song - ghö ông

Also recorded in the same session as Gong Song in October 2015, this time it started with the drone of the UDU (a clay vase with a hole in the belly - East Africa, like a ghatham - south India). Acoustic bass brutally mixed to the front... like you can feel its breath!

Udu Clouds

An intriguing journey through a beautiful forest.  This is the first collaboration that VictorYbril (Spain - soundscape) and MATJAMI (the Netherlands - percussion and gong drones) have produced via Soundcloud and We Transfer. Play not so loud over big speakers or a good headphone, otherwise you'll miss the heart beat...
Please also check our prelude "Sleeping Sun - VMM-Style"
 
Victor first created the soothing and mysterious sounds , and also painted the cover illustration after we finished the recordings. MATJAMI brought in the high-toned metal beacon sound, and then added the heart beat on the deep bass drum and the rythm on the Balinese kempli. Finally, we added the fast clicking sounds of the bat in the background (courtesy and permission of Fintan O'Brien, a brilliant and inspiring field recording specialist also on Soundcloud).
Enjoy, relax, meander with the flow of the river. 

MATJAMI and VictorYibril - Victor Meets MATJAMI

Dulcimer traditional tune old-time folk song; 'Wedding Dress' is a well known folk song from the Appalachian Mountains of the East Coast USA, but may have Irish/ Scottish roots. 
Phlip already published this song on his own account, and upon stumbling over some of MATJAMI's sounds, sent files to the Netherlands, where the MATJAMI gang added some percussive folk music from yet the other part of the world (China, Bali).
So here it is: Mountain Dulcimer (cross over between a guitar, lute and violin, also sounding a bit like a sitar) 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_dulcimer), blues singing, and Balinese, Chinese and Mongolian bronze beats.
(To hear the beat of the bass drum and deep gong, you need good headphones/plugs or good speakers; laptop won't do it.)

Enjoy, like and repost

Wedding Dress (traditional) Phlip Smith - MATJAMI

Our third live session February 5th 2016 started with Marcel's ping-metronome and simmering sounds, upon which Tjalling added his  rythmic drone, while Mike was hiding behind the big bass drum. Tjalling then added the Javanse gamelan and bell-based tunes, Mike hit the cello several times, and Marcel added his plucks, bits and pieces as the drone was merrily hopping along. 
Finally, it took a week to sort it all out and mix into the current result. We are sure this is not the end of it, but for now we hope you enjoy: please send us comments, we love to hear from you! 
Tjallngs Drone was also used again in "What are we afraid of?"
(btw: Foto from Marcel's search under the surface in Iceland)

Under The Surface

Imagine a journey with a friend through a warm and peaceful forest. In the middle of the night you arrive at a smooth sand bank, laced by the soft murmer of the stream that you followed. As you wake up at first light, you see the dance of early birds and rays of sun light through the jungle canopy, the reflection of light in the pools next to you... all you do is look, gaze and wonder: The Place.

This time our collaboration worked the other way around: MATJAMI sent Victor a groove on pots 'n pans 'n gongs, Victor reworked it completely and added a whole new feel to it, and MATJAMI re-mixed it to the final version... true collaboration, based on respect and trust!

The original recording by MATJAMI is now published as 'Belles and Gongs - First Movement'.

MATJAMI and VictorYibril - The Place

 'Soul Fury' is a project that combines poetry with ambient  music, based on the first phrases of a the poem 'Soul Fury' by 13th century Persian poet Mawlama J.D.M. Rumi:

"This is how the heart sounds,            (Asa este cum suna inima)
Do not change the melody,                  (Sa nu schimbi melodia)
This is now, you and I, here together, (Acest Acum, Tu si eu, aici impreuna) 
Let this being with each other,            (Sa fie acest A Fi unul cu altul)
be heart sound".                                    (Sa fie Un Sunet Inima)

The lyrics you hear are exactly that, but then in native tongue, so Miraele (see her SC-page) in Romanian, with more people to follow.
The idea is a statement of universal love, friendship, sharing and giving through music. Over time we hope to invite and add different people from different places that we encounter on the SoundCloud. So, over time you will see subsequent versions of 'Soul Fury' popping up by MATJAMI. 

Better still, we invite you to start your own Soul Fury-network of sharing and giving to each other through music. 

The idea was inspired by two different events: 
1) the movie "What about Me" (2008) by 1 Giant Leap, and 
2)Arctic WindHorse (2015); read her info section on her SC-account under that name.

Let us know what you think about this, and we hope you can start your own "Soul Fury"!

MATJAMI

Soul Fury Feat. Miraela

Ambient Poetry, new thing in our repetoire... listen to 'Soul Fury' as well.
A bit dark starting point, but ulimately it is about love, tenderness and the strength to be true. Snippets of a speech by Pema Chödrön which she held in Sept 1999 titled: "What are we afraid of?". 

Music created and played by Marcel, Tjalling's drone was transplanted entirely from our track "Under the Surface", and the whole thing was  re-mixed and 'spiced' by Mike (finally, he did not use that bass drum!).
Still don't know if you should play this first and then Under the Surface, or the other way around... what do you think?

What are we afraid of? (feat. quotes by Pema Chödrön)

A first collaboration between Diederik Idenburg  (Amsterdam) and MATJAMI. Diederik's minimal electronic track was used by Victor and Rolff 2014 Paris Fashion show; you can find the original track on Diederik's SC-page. 
MATJAMI added the deep Balinese gongs, melodic Vietnamese gongs, Bali en Mongolian bells and Thai-wood block clicks, and finally a sprinkle of voice in the background.
The Painting of the face was found on the streets of Montpellier by an unknown artist... go have a look!

Diederik Idenburg & MATJAMI - Hear If It Rains

This is the first mix by MATJAMI of tracks we produced in 2015-2016 so far. 
You can find all the tracks on our SC-page.
We will publish two cd's this year, one on MATJAMI only, and one on Collaborations. You can pre-order for free at mike@branchingtree.com
Enjoy

2016 - 05 - 16 MATJAMI PODCAST MIX#1(2)

"This is how the heart sounds, 
Do not change the melody, 
This is now, you and I, here together,
Let this being with each other, 
be heart sound". 

This is the second version of Soul Fury that we produce as our statement of universal love for music. 
Karin Tarabochia (Augenmerk on SC, Austria)translated the opening lines of the 13th century Rumi poem into her own German-Austrian words, and made her delicate delivery to go with Miraela's voice and our MATJAMI music.
The original Soul Fury can be found on the MATJAMI track list as well, with more details to the why and how we do this.
Hoping for more Soul Fury to come, thanks for your ears and mind!




Mike


Soul Fury #2

Soul Fury #2 (feat. Miraela & Augenmerk)

'The sweet smell of Opoponax mirre carries me away to dreams of my Somalia... I drift amongst the stars, to hidden places of wonder and joy...'

VictorYibril launched 'The Long Silent Movement' in 2015 (see his SC-pages); brilliant and inspiring sounds and movements...
Ever since, MATJAMI has been working on a MATJAMI-style version. After several previous attempts, we now arrived at a stripped and re-mixed version of the LSM tracks, and the addition of the real timpani, singing bowl, small vietnamese gongs and a palm-leaf sweeper. Quite different from the original track, we are happy to publish it for our listeners to give some warmth in dark December (or bright December if your are down south!). 
We would love to hear what you think/feel/hear/experience... add it to the comments if you like.
Also check out our previous Osmanthus Dream, another 'sensory' ambient track. 
Enjoy!
Victor and Mike

VMM-collaborations

LSM MATJAMI-style

MATJAMI and VictorYibril - OPOPONAX

Music for a Short Story
" ... but the rain did not really matter, as the colour and the smell of things got more intens. Not wanting to leave, hooked in the moment... Did it matter what would happen in time? I suppressed the questions of how and why; it would only spoil the experience...

'Music for a short story' is composed, recorded and produced bij Marcel Bode from MATJAMI. The main piano theme was composed bij Marcel Bode and Mariël van den Berg. (The picture is a photo made by Marcel from a series of abandoned wooden boats in Scotland)

Music for a Short Story

Music For A Short Story

"This is how the heart sounds, 
Do not change the melody, 
This is now, you and I, here together,
Let this being with each other, 
be Heart Sound".

This is the third version of our project Soul Fury. We invite inspiring people and stimulating souls to add their vocal version of the 13th century poem "Soul Fury" by Persian Poet Rumi... in their own language. Ultimately, music is our universal voice and it gives us the inner power to unite, wherever we are.
 
In #3 Maryana Klochko from Lviv, Ukraine adds her free-style vocals, happily haunting and mysteriously chasing the music around. Then, Yasyntha Feel from Beirut & Paris offers clarity with her Lebanese narrative to Maryana's voice using Rumi's Poem.

Funny enough, non of us really understands what the other is saying exactly, but because the Poem is so simple, we all feel more or less the meaning, what goes where, and how to interact between voices and musical phrases.
Like the previous versions, everything came together via SC and We Transferring of files.

Listen to Soul Fury #1 and #2 for the bigger picture, and read those comments  for the background information... Then you will also understand what Alaska has to do with all of this!

Last but not least, Maryana also made the cover art; check https://soundcloud.com/maryana-klochko for more links. 
Yasyntha's SC-page:  https://soundcloud.com/yasynthafeel

Enjoy, comment, share, repost!

Soul Fury #3

Soul Fury #3 (Feat. Maryana & Yasyntha)

MATJAMI: Acoustic-electronic soundscapes, deep beats, slow trance, empty space: meditation by listening and playing. 
Tip: Use good speakers or headphones to enjoy the rich, deep sounds and binaural recordings.

We three at MATJAMI (Marcel Bode, Tjalling de Leeuw, Mike de Leeuw) develop our sounds and grooves as we interact live, using our bronze, wooden and stringed instruments, (Balinese gamelan & gongs, bowls, Tibetan horns, Chinese guxing & gongs, Javanese kendang drums, timpani, beer bottles) with Native electronics, samples and live loops. The quality and the texture of our sounds are at least as important as the composition. 
We play our sessions 'on the fly', where one of us starts and the rest comes in at leisure... All you hear here was recorded live, with only some simple stereo and eq mixing afterwards.
We love to perform in open areas, theaters, level stage, and spaces with a special feel to them; a small audience is just as nice.
Recently we started collaborating with other audio-artists like VictorYibril, Fintan O'Brien and Phlip Smith (G.A.), Miraela, and Augenmerk, combining their very different music styles, field recordings and soundscapes with our beats and sounds. 
Connect at mike@branchingtree.com

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