Mattin, born 1977, is an artist from Basque Country associated with laptop improvisation and noise. Mattin’s exploration of sound is rooted in contrast, testing the oppositions between noise and silence, between extreme high and low volumes, and between the digital and physical sounds of the computer.
Mattin uses the laptop primarily to create simple and powerful feedback, but also uses improv and fluxus-like techniques, scraping and sawing the case of his laptop with a small metal file, physically attacking the computer, sometimes leaving the machine switched off, other times using just the hard drive to produce noise, or the cd writer. Mattin plays solo, but more often collaborates with electroacoustic improvisers. He frequently works with improv artists playing traditional instruments such as Radu Malfatti and Eddie Prévost. He has recently developed an interest in the use of free software for improvisation, particulary for the egalitarian, co-operative approaches it engenders.Mattin studied visual arts and art history in London, and he is also a filmmaker. He makes short, silent films that are politically engaged, the 2004 short Bilbo Bukatua, for example, deals with the problem of gentrification in Bilbao, the largest city in Basque Country.
Mattin is also a theorist, and has written extensively about improvisation, free software and Anti-copyright. He runs the experimental record label W.M.O./r, and the netlabel Desetxea. Mattin has released over 40 CDs on labels around the world, many of which he published under the no-licence of Anti-copyright.
The first official Mattin release was a collaboration with Rosy Parlane called Mendietan in 2002, which was also the first official (cat. No. 5) release on his label, W.M.O./r. Other notable releases include recording of a free improv session with Norwiegen noise artist Lasse Marhaug and others called The Seedy R on a 2006 solo untitled album on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, a New Zealand label run by Campbell Kneale aka Birchville Cat Motel. In 2007, Mattin released a collaboraton with Taku Unami on Hibari Records in Japan.Mattin is a member of the Basque based group Billy Bao, a garage punk band made of a Nigerian expat vocalist, Mattin, and another Spaniard. He’s part of a duo, NMM, or No More Music at The Service of Capital, with Lucio Capece, and Sakada, formed in 2001 with Eddie Prévost and Rosy Parlane.
Other projects include: La Grieta with Josetxo Anitua, Josetxo Grieta and Deflag Haemorrhage/Haien Kontra.Mattin has collaborated with an extensive list of artists. The long list includes Oren Ambarchi, Tony Conrad, Matthew Bower, Taku Sugimoto, Yasuo Totsuka, Axel Dörner, Masafumi Ezaki, Kaffe Matthews, John Butcher and Matt Davies.
appearance at Tuned City
Brussels / Noise & Gentrification / 28. June 2013
Berlin /concert/27.01.2008 Tuned Space