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Hub-Capped Diamond Studded Halo Kaffe Matthews’ performances have
flirted with the unpredictability of these kinds of live situations
for a while. Using live, recorded sounds rather than a pre-recorded
stock of samples, each of her performances is very specifically tied
to a place. Using software called LiSa (which stands for live sampling),
she’ll gradually incorporate and treat sounds from the environment
with those from her wired-up violin.The tranquillity with which she
improvises is amazing. Nothing like the kind of "horror vacui"
such an open situation could inspire, more a wry amusement at the
sounds that arrive out of nowhere and then disappear. Each one suggests
new narratives, action or atmospheres which, like a sensitive and
skilful medium, she either gives a voice or patiently muffles. The new Annette Works label exists to
showcase music combining improvisition and electronics, and Kaffe
Matthews is a splendid musician to start with. The pieces on CD Ann
combine solo violin with a flexible live sampling system and the sounds
of the performance environment (a church, a shed, or a bedroom) Kaffe’s
violin is a very successful when looped and layered against crackling
ambient noise, and she obviously has a discerning and curious ear
for sound. The less successful pieces are those where the violin itself
disappears from hearing, since it’s the pleasantly puzzling
contrast between instrumental and non-musical sound that really entices.
The Wire Kaffe Matthews is the Pope of the virtual
violin - one hand on the fiddle, the other on the Power Macintosh.
But on the evidence of this stunning CD, we should think of her less
as a violinist and more as a producer of seething improvised electronica.
Last year Matthews played on David Toop’s "Pink Noir"
album, and her concerns are not to far away from Toop’s haunted
dreamscapes. More grit and dirt in Matthews’ pallette however,
and the material is all recorded live. Matthews emphasizes the "here
and now" quality of the music by always setting up a hidden microphone
in the venue, contributing a wild-card non-musical element and ensuring
the overall sound is not simply electronic. On track one, for example,
we hear the sound of Paul Burwell cooking.
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