Born in 1977 in Avebury, Wiltshire, Matthew Bourne first caught the attention of English audiences in 2001 as one of the winners of the Perrier Jazz Award. The following year he won the BBC Radio Jazz Award in the "Jazz Innovation" category, and in 2005 he received the International Jazz Award from the IFJO, an umbrella organisation
of the world's 16 largest jazz festivals. Then still a "young savage", he indulged in free interaction in his piano trio Bourne/Davis/Kane, amazed with unconventionally creative use of samples, played in the proto-metal band "Bilbao Syndrome" and worked for artists as diverse as John Zorn, Barre Phillips, Annette Peacock, Nils Frahm and Nostalgia 77.
"Montauk Variations", a piano and cello album from 2012, opened a new chapter in the artist's biography. A chapter that now brings fragility and romance into focus in his highly personal music, without sacrificing the typically Bournean qualities of unpredictability and intensity for it.
"Montauk Variations" takes the listener on a fascinating journey into the sonic world of an artist who draws inspiration from all sorts of things, even situations that others would consider disruptive. Just as he was about to begin recording at Dartington Hall, where the garden is as well tended as the pianos, the distant roar of a lawnmower assaulted his ear. "In the spirit of improvisation, I let myself go with it rather than let it bother me", the musician records.
This is how "The Greenkeeper" came to be one of the album's highlights, dedicated to that most British of inventions and the man who used it to tackle the lawn on the day of the recording.
The barricade striker of yore now presents himself as a mature artist who doesn't shy away from beauty, blending a variety of influences - from English pastoral to new music to jazz of every stripe to electronics - into music that's both accessible and daring.
For the past year he has been living in a Yorkshire village where, surrounded and inspired by vintage synthesizers, tape delays and a squeaky harmonium alongside his cello and piano, he devotes himself entirely to the sounds coming from within himself.
The 47. Deutsche Jazzfestival Frankfurt 2016 features the idiosyncratic recluse on Sunday at noon at the Mousonturm venue with the solo piano concerto "Montauk Variations" and in the evening at the hall with his solo synthesizer program "Moogmemory".
Text source and more information about the event:
http://www.mousonturm.de/web/de/veranstaltung/Montauk-Variations
