Stephan Mathieu

Last updated
Stephan Mathieu
Origin Saarbrücken
Genres Experimental, Electroacoustics, Avantgarde, Contemporary music, Dream pop, Improv, Jazz, Electronica, Ambient, Alternative, Noise
Occupation(s) Mastering engineer, musician
Years active1989 – present
Website Schwebung Mastering

Stephan Mathieu (born 11 October 1967) is a German mastering engineer and former musician. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany where he runs Schwebung Mastering, an independent studio for audio mastering and restoration. [1]

Contents

“(In 1997), I worked as an engineer and teacher in a classic electronic music studio in France, the former CERM (Centre européen de recherche musicale) Metz, where I had set up an experimental analog lab around their vintage devices by ARP, Crumar, EMS, Moog, New England Digital and Roland, as well as a digital production studio featuring the latest Pro Tools 24-Bit audio technology. There I started mastering in 1998 – without exactly knowing that’s what I did – by transferring countless DATs and reels with recordings made during their annual festival, cleaned, edited, and EQed them for archival purposes and as CD-R copies for the composers and performers. Around the same time, I began a long journey of learning more about listening critically, frequencies and dynamics while attending many mastering sessions for my material.” [2]

Mathieu founded Schwebung Mastering in 2014 and has “collaborated with producers running the gamut of modern recorded music.”. [3] He has worked for labels such as Editions Mego, Important Records, Kranky, Mexican Summer, One Little Independent Records, Past Inside The Present, RVNG Intl., Sacred Bones, Saltern, Secretly Canadian, Sferic, Shelter Press, Unseen Worlds, and mastered music by Ákos Rózmann, Alessandro Cortini, Anton Webern, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Catherine Christer Hennix, Celer, Charles Curtis, David Rosenboom, Éliane Radigue, Félicia Atkinson, Fennesz, Grouper, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, John McGuire, Kali Malone, Morton Feldman, Richard Landry, Robert Ashley, Stephen O'Malley, Terry Jennings, The Caretaker, Yoshi Wada among many others. [4]

Selected mastering and restoration credits

Background

Stephan Mathieu was born in Saarbrücken, Germany. At 10, he started to play drums. In 1984 he quit school to study haircutting after Vidal Sassoon, a profession he followed until 1989, when he decided to focus entirely on making music. [6]

Work as a musician

Between 1989 and 2017, Stephan Mathieu was active as a musician, working in the fields of free improvisation, electroacoustics and abstract digitala. His work is primarily based on early instruments, environmental sound, and obsolete media, recorded and transformed using experimental microphone set-ups, re-editing techniques, and software processes. His sound has been compared to the landscape paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the work of Painters Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly. [7]

Mathieu's music has been released on 60 records, CDs and digital editions, [8] both solo and in collaboration with Akira Rabelais and Kassel Jaeger, David Sylvian, Ekkehard Ehlers, Janek Schaefer, Taylor Deupree, Robert Hampson, Sylvain Chauveau and others.

Since 1992 he has performed live in solo shows and at festivals in Europe, Scandinavia, North- and South America, Japan and created various sound environments for galleries and museums, a glass-blowing factory, a 17th-century garden, Berlin Mitte, a 19th-century steel plant, parks, an arrangement of 30 cars, a late antique throne hall and various other places across four continents.

Between 2000 and 2005, Mathieu taught Digital Arts and Theory at the HBKSaar University of Art and Design in Saarbrücken and as a guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Arts Göteborg, the Bauhaus University Weimar, and the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart.

His solo CD Radioland was voted genre-spanning one of the best albums of 2008 by music critics worldwide. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

”Mathieu shows that that most functional and impersonal of musical instruments, the laptop, is capable of producing work not only of great beauty but of mysterious and powerful emotion.” [17]

Work as a drummer

In 1990 Mathieu moved to Berlin, where he joined a young generation of improvising musicians and worked in several groups with Johannes Bauer, Dietmar Diesner, Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, Toshimaru Nakamura, Rudi Mahall, Harri Sjöström and others. He played in Wolfgang Fuchs' workshop group and the large conduction ensemble Berlin Skyscraper by New York-based composer Butch Morris.

A constant factor in Mathieu's work during the 1990s was the duo Stol with guitarist Olaf Rupp. Stol moved freely between improvisation, noise, and minimal rock, collaborated with various guest musicians and Butoh dancers and recorded a miniCD (Semi Prima Vista in 1994) and a 12-inch EP (001.010.011.100 in 1995) which was released on Kitty-Yo, Berlin in 1998. The same year he returned to his hometown Saarbrücken where he shifted focus towards composing and performing music with computers.

Computer-aided music

In 1999 music label Orthlorng Musork released his Full Swing EP, a 12-inch record with two pieces made from tiny snippets from recordings of Stephan's drum kit, which were processed by DSP software in realtime. He applied this working method to recordings of his piano and guitar playing as well as material by other musicians until 2001, when he changed his approach towards sound from micro to macro, from working with tiny sound fragments to extensive live recordings of acoustic instruments, which were now transformed in real-time using experimental microphone set-ups, re-editing techniques and software processes, culminating in his The Sad Mac CD, released on the Tokyo-based Headz label in 2004.

From 2005 to 2007, Mathieu worked exclusively with real-time processed shortwave radio signals and performed Radioland, an audio-visual surround sound piece, live.

Work with historical media and instruments

In 2008 he launched Virginals, a recital concept which pays tribute to some of the great contemporary composers of minimal, experimental and electroaucoustic music. Interpretations of pieces by Phill Niblock, Alvin Lucier, Walter Marchetti, Charlemagne Palestine and Francisco López are performed by Mathieu on the Virginals, mechanical gramophones, electronic organs and obsolete media devices. [18] Revenant, a new piece written for Virginals by Tashi Wada was premiered in June 2011 at the Collège des Bernardins, Paris. [19] [20]

Between 2009 and 2010, the audiovisual installations Process and Constellations were premiered and performed in Croatia, Spain, and Belgium. Both pieces are closely linked to Virginals in their mechanical-acoustic nature.

In 2011 Mathieu started live and studio collaborations with Sylvain Chauveau, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Taylor Deupree, Jozef van Wissem and Donal Lunny, as well as relaunching Robert Hampson's Main project.

In November 2011, he performed a live rework of David Sylvian and Holger Czukay’s Ambient classic Plight and Premonition, which led to The Kilowatt Hour, a trio project with Christian Fennesz and David Sylvian in 2013. The trio performed a piece based on poems by Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Franz Wright during a series of shows in Norway and Italy. [21]

Mathieu's final musical work Radiance, a collection of long-form pieces, was released on his Schwebung imprint as a series of digital downloads and a 12-CD boxed set between 2016 and 2018. [22]

Selected discography

Selected sound installations

Related Research Articles

Robert Fripp British guitarist, composer and record producer

Robert Fripp is a British musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Midge Ure, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista operating system, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to over 700 official releases.

Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The label has been superseded by a new company, Editions Mego, which was set up both to keep Mego albums in print and to issue new albums, run by Peter Rehberg a.k.a. Pita.

Fennesz Austrian musician

Christian Fennesz is an Austrian producer and guitarist active in electronic music since the 1990s, often credited simply by his last name. His work utilizes guitar and laptop computers to blend melody with treated samples and glitch production. He lives and works in Vienna, and currently records on the UK label Touch.

Peter Rehberg British musician and composer

Peter Rehberg, also known as Pita, was a British-Austrian composer of electronic audio works. He was the head of Editions Mego, which he founded in 2006 as a successor to Mego.

<i>Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities</i> 1985 studio album by David Sylvian

Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities is a solo album by David Sylvian first released in December 1985 on cassette only, as a limited edition. Alchemy is an intermediary album, released between his first solo album Brilliant Trees and his second solo album Gone to Earth, made up of two entirely separate projects recorded 1984 and 1985.

Janek Schaefer

Janek Schaefer is an avant-garde artist, composer, musician and entertainer, known for performing and exhibiting his work with sound and installation art. He has collaborated with William Basinski, Philip Jeck, Stephan Mathieu, Chris Watson, Robert Hampson, and Charlemagne Palestine.

Michael Chapman (singer) British musician (1941–2021)

Michael Chapman was a British singer-songwriter and virtuosic guitar player. Chapman originally began playing guitar with jazz bands, mainly in his home town of Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He became well known in the folk clubs of the late 1960s, as well as on the 'progressive' music scene, and released over 50 albums.

Bruce Clifford Gilbert is an English musician. One of the founding members of the influential and experimental art punk band Wire, he branched out into electronic music, performance art, music production, and DJing during the band's extended periods of inactivity. He left Wire in 2004, and has since been focusing on solo work and collaborations with visual artists and fellow experimental musicians.

Excepter

Excepter is an experimental music group from Brooklyn, founded in 2002 by No-Neck Blues Band member John Fell Ryan. They have released their work on labels such as Load Records and Animal Collective's Paw Tracks, and are known for their improvisational approach to playing both live and in the studio.

Mattin is an artist from Bilbao working mostly with noise and improvisation. Mattin also has written about improvisation, free software and against the notion of intellectual property. In 2001 Mattin formed Sakada with Eddie Prévost and Rosy Parlane. He has over 70 releases in different labels around the world. He runs the experimental record labels w.m.o/r and Free Software Series, and the netlabel Desetxea. Mattin publishes his music under the no-licence of Anti-copyright. With Anthony Iles, he has edited the book Noise & Capitalism.

Weston is a punk rock band hailing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1990, they took their name from singer Dave Weston's family, since his parents allowed them to practice in their basement. The band never found mainstream success but their energetic and irreverent live shows earned them legendary status amongst their peers as well as their fans. Following their major label debut, the band split up. It was announced on October 17, 2006, that Weston would be reuniting for three shows in late December. This led to even more reunion shows in following years and a live album released December 2009.

Nadja (band)

Nadja is a Canadian duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff. Nadja began in 2003 as a solo project for Baker to explore the heavier and noisier side of his experimental ambient music performed mainly on the electric guitar. In 2005 Buckareff joined in order to make the project more than just a studio endeavour and to allow Nadja to perform live.

Felix Kubin (born Felix Knoth; 1969 in Hamburg, is an electronic musician, composer, curator, sound and radio artist. He runs the Record Label Gagarin Records.

Erik Wøllo Norwegian composer

Erik Wøllo is a Norwegian composer and musician, guitarist and synthesist. He has a background in various genres in music. As a solo recording artist, he is most known for his electronic and ambient musical soundscapes. Music that can be classified in the genres of space, drone, new age, and electronic music. Through his many albums he has gained recognition for his unique sound and style. Using guitar as the primary instrument in a highly imaginary and emotional music, building a bridge between grand symphonic realms and gentle, minimalistic and serene atmospheres.

Hayden Chisholm New Zealand musician (born 1975)

Hayden Chisholm is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist from New Zealand. He performs jazz, improvised music, and contemporary classical music.

Robert Solheim is an electronic music composer from Norway. His styles are techno and deep/tech-house, downtempo and electronica with a strong emphasis on Nordic sound. Influenced by all kinds of electronic music, he has developed his characteristic style from his first ambient and ambient-techno releases in the 1990s, through down tempo and deep/tech-house and techno for clubs and home entertainment.

Christina Kubisch German composer (1948 - )

Christina Kubisch is a German composer, sound artist, performance artist, professor and flautist. She composes both electronic and acoustic music for multimedia installations. She gained recognition in the mid-1970s from her early works including concerts, performances and installations. Her work focuses on synthesising audio and visual arts to create multi-sensory experiences for participants. She focuses on finding sounds and music in unusual places that participants would normally not think of as somewhere to experience sound.

<i>Les Revenants</i> (album) 2013 soundtrack album by Mogwai

Les Revenants is an original soundtrack album by Mogwai, for the French TV series of the same name. Mogwai were initially contacted by producers of the television show, and asked to begin producing music after reading only a few translated scripts. An extended play of the soundtrack, Les Revenants EP, was released in 2012, and the full album was released on 25 February 2013.

<i>Live at the Berlin Philharmonie</i> 1972 live album by Dave Brubeck Trio and Gerry Mulligan

Live at the Berlin Philharmonie is a 1970 live album by Dave Brubeck and his trio with Gerry Mulligan recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie. It was reissued in 1995 with several bonus tracks. The album peaked at 21 on the Billboard Top Jazz Charts.

<i>Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited</i> 2015 studio album by Matthew Bourne and Franck Vigroux

Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited is a studio album by English improvising pianist and synthesiser player Matthew Bourne (musician) and French electronic composer Franck Vigroux, created to mark the 40th anniversary of Kraftwerk's seminal album Radio-Activity. It was released digitally by The Leaf Label on 4 December 2015, with physical copies following in early 2016.

References

  1. ↑ "About Schwebung Mastering" . Retrieved 13 Apr 2020.
  2. ↑ "Approaching Sound" . Retrieved 12 Apr 2022.
  3. ↑ "About Schwebung Mastering" . Retrieved 13 Apr 2020.
  4. ↑ "Schwebung Mastering Credits" . Retrieved 13 Apr 2020.
  5. ↑ "Mastering Credits" . Retrieved 13 Apr 2020.
  6. ↑ "Approaching Sound". Schwebung Mastering website. September 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  7. ↑ Bolognesi, Pia (March 2011). "Constellations and Fragments: The Sound of Stephan Mathieu". Digimag. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  8. ↑ Discogs. "Discogs". www.discogs.com. Discogs. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "The Wire's 2008 Top 50 Rewind". The Wire Magazine. January 2009. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  10. ↑ Lockett, Alan (March 2009). "Beatless Top 10". Igloo Magazine. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  11. ↑ "Our favourite 100 albums for 2008". Boomkat Online. December 2008. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  12. ↑ "Definitive Top 20 Albums of 2008". The Milkfactory. January 2009. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  13. ↑ "Best Albums of 2008". Mimaroglu Music Sales. December 2008. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  14. ↑ Crumsho, Michael (January 2009). "Albums of 2008". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  15. ↑ Covey, Ethan (January 2009). "Albums of 2008". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  16. ↑ O'Connell, Jake (January 2009). "Albums of 2008". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 21 Oct 2012.
  17. ↑ Warburton, Dan (March 2005). "ELECTRONICA: Stephan Mathieu THESADMAC". Paris Transatlantic Magazine. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  18. ↑ Bitsteam. "Virginals". Bitsteam.de. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  19. ↑ Guitton, Maxime. "Revenant premiere at Collège des Bernardins 1" . Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  20. ↑ Guitton, Maxime. "Revenant premiere at Collège des Bernardins 2" . Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  21. ↑ The Kilowatt Hour. "The Kilowatt Hour ft. Franz Wright". DavidSylvian.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  22. ↑ "Schwebung Bandcamp" . Retrieved 13 Apr 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.