Matt Baber 'new solo album "Suite For Piano and Electronics"

Matt is a multi-instrumentalist, having started out as a drummer, before developing an interest in keyboards. With the formation of Antique Seeking Nuns (later to become Sanguine Hum) Matt had to make the tough decision which instrument to play in the band. “I knew a great drummer,” he says, “but didn’t know any other keyboard players who could realise our vision, so it ended up as piano, synth and organ for me. I still teach drums in my ‘normal’ life, though!”

As a performer and writer, Matt has been influenced by a wide range of artists. Keith Emerson, Tony Banks and Keith Jarrett helped to shape his early technique and compositional approach, which is also informed by the new generation of electronic musicians such as the Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. Matt has also amassed a large collection of works from ‘classical’ composers, with Steve Reich, Philip Glass and older composers like Ravel and Bartok being key.

Alongside his work with Sanguine Hum, Matt has recorded and compiled over a dozen self-produced albums of electronic and ambient music, most of which have only been released privately to friends and family, though Outskirts made it into the public arena as a digital offering. The techniques developed here with synths and ambient sounds helped to form the backdrop for Matt’s first ‘proper’ CD release, Suite For Piano and Electronics, bringing together the worlds of minimalist classical piano and ambient electronica that have formed the basis of two decades’ worth of experimentation.

“This record is really a culmination of so many different strands that I’ve been working on”, says Matt. “I’ve tried really hard over the years to develop something personal and unique when I sit at the piano, and the pieces often come from spontaneous improvisations. The same is true of the electronics – there are certain sounds and moods I seem to end up arriving at, and it’s been really enjoyable finding ways to unite these two components”.