The description below, from the album’s Bandcamp page truly describes the wonderful sonance found within this EP’s 4 tracks: experimental & reverberating soundscapes that advance & decay across the organic aural terrain — a terrific collaboration & musical journey between these two musicians who blend a traditional folk-ish musical sound while peppering it with free-improv strategies.
Similar experimentally inclined artists that come to mind are: Bill Frisell, the Pat Metheny John Zorn collaboration (Book of Angels) and Stephan Thelen; with a bit of David Torn & Henry Frayne.
Excellent work!!
(please see our interview with them, below)
~Ambient Landscape, April 2024
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Piper and von Seggern excavate spectral visions of the Midwest on their debut collaboration, the 4-track EP A Thousand Miles from Nowhere. The instrumental release conjures ominous Americana soundscapes through inventive fusions of organic and electronic elements.
The titles and music evoke the mysteries of the heartland, suggesting old practices and beliefs persisting in new forms, hinting at regional traditions without directly naming them.
Piper’s banjo, resonator guitar, zither, and tongue drum decay and reform into haunting new timbres. Von Seggern’s acoustic bass guitar provides a deep rhythmic pulse, while his sampling, beats, and electronics warp traditional folk forms into dark experimental textures.
Recorded over the internet during the pandemic, the EP reimagines regional folkways for our hypermodern moment, crafting a timeless ambiance.
Released March 28, 2024
Matt Piper – banjo, resonator guitar, kalimba, tongue drum
John von Seggern – acoustic bass guitar, beats & electronics
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We caught up with Matt & John, courtesy of John’s wife Susan, for an online interview last week; here’s how it went:
1. Who are the artists that have inspired you to create music?
Matt: I started recording my own music on dubbing decks and multi-track cassette machines when I was a teenager, and in those days a lot of classic rock was inspiring me, from the James Gang (I still make people listen to some tracks on their first album) to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush, Jimi–the usual suspects! After moving to Los Angeles from the rural Midwest at the age of 19 I discovered Miles Davis, Igor Stravinsky, and King Crimson, as well as classical Indian music and eventually Los Angeles’s underground improvised music scene. Radiohead helped me to stop feeling bad that I’d been born a bit too late to see so many great bands from the past. Somehow out of all those influences I ended up gravitating towards dreamy, hypnotic, strange and mysterious musical vibes and wanting to be part of creating consciousness altering transportive experiences.
John: The artist who most inspired this project is ambient pioneer Jon Hassell, who was one of my musical heroes since high school. I was lucky to get the opportunity to work directly with Jon from 2014-2020 and co-produced his last 2 albums, Listening to Pictures and Seeing Through Sound. This new project was a conscious attempt to continue applying what I learned from Jon in my own work — experiment fearlessly and always be on the lookout for new sounds and territories to explore.
On this album the experimental side really comes through in the way we’ve treated the banjo, stretching it out to form string pads and slicing it into tiny bits that can be scattered and rearranged. This project was animated by applying these experimental techniques to instruments and styles more associated with folk or country music. Beyond the banjo, we used mostly acoustic instruments including zither, tongue drum, resonator guitar, and acoustic bass guitar.
2. What directions (dark ambient, drone, neoclassical, etc.) do you see both your solo and collaborative musical careers headed?
Matt: There is a high degree of improvisation in what John and I do. That has been the way that feels natural for us to make music together, that also lends itself to collaboration with others who are into listening to each other and trying to just reach out for the music that is there. All manner of traditional acoustic instruments, especially from older non-Western traditions, blend really well with our aesthetic and with John’s electronic production, and working with additional collaborators on those instruments for future projects would be exciting. This music I think will be equally suited for deep listening at home and for live performances, as well as for film music and animation. Collaboration with visual artists is something I’d really like to explore with this music.
John: I’m continuing to explore dark ambient improvisation in a variety of solo and collaborative projects at the moment. I’ve also been exploring the sonic possibilities of the Chapman Stick, using an extension of the software effects processing rig I made for Hassell, my last solo release Evocations is all played on the Stick.
Matt and I had a trio recording session with drummer Mathias Kunzli (played with John Zorn, Marc Ribot and many others) recently that will become our next album in this vein, ambient banjo-led improvisation in an ECM/jazz type of style. I played the Stick on that one. We’re planning some live gigs with that line up later this year.
I’ll be releasing a new ambient collab with Dean DeBenedictis in a couple months, Taking Shasta Mountain (By Strategy), and I have a few more ambient releases planned for later in the year, including a recording of my live ambient bass guitar concert at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles last June.
Matt and I have also recorded another album of ambient improvisations with old friend Steve Nalepa, member of band The Acid, recently, there’s a wealth of more drone-oriented material from that session but it’s going to take some editing to find the gems.
3. How do you feel this recent collaborative effort will impact your solo projects?
Matt: I feel like something true about our musical souls (John’s and mine) is represented in this recording. As a solo artist I’m always on the lookout for creative opportunities, and certainly this EP is something I’ll be very happy to share toward that end. Also hearing the way John interpreted and synthesized all the material we recorded is inspiring. Hearing what he heard via his production kind of refocuses me in some interesting new ways. I think the act of making this music fed my spirit in a way that just makes me want to play more and create more.
John: Matt is actually one of my oldest collaborators but we’ve never made a proper recording together. Our collaboration is like a chance to share all the continuing research we both do into instrumental playing techniques and effects processing tech. I continue to get new ideas from working with Matt that inevitably seep into all my other work.
4. If it were possible to choose, which mainstream (ambient or otherwise) artist would you like to collaborate with?
Matt: I would be thrilled for a chance to collaborate with Mica Levi. Their musical voice seems so free to go in any new direction using any texture or tool they choose.
John: If I could collaborate with anyone it would be film director David Lynch, his works have done the most to open my mind in new unexpected directions. As far as musical collaborators, I feel like I already have a wealth of gifted artists to work with all around me and I don’t really think that much about superstar collaborations or something like this.
Ambient Landscape 