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Matthew De Gennaro Download mp3 | Stream mp3
Multi-instrumentalist and improviser Matt De Gennaro phones it in from a one-room schoolhouse in Webster Township, MI, about 15 miles north of Ann Arbor. The words 'beautiful' and 'epic' only just begin to describe these pieces.

Matt played at my house in Providence once, years ago, on a rare tour. A Danish improv group had driven most of the show-goers outside by playing for way too long (over an hour!). After an unsuccessful attempt to get people to listen to his quiet guitar-playing on the porch, Matt defiantly set up his pump organ on the front lawn and proceeded to blow our minds while we lay in the grass watching the sky.

Anyway, Chris from Last Visible Dog, who released Matt's only widely-available album, sez' it better than I could:

"Following the Wire's declaration of the 'New Weird America' and more specifically pigeon-holing artists as remote as Jack Rose, the Jewelled Antler collective, Matt Valentine, Six Organs of Admittance and who knows what else into a genre they termed 'outsider folk', there has been an ever rising tide of new players delving into the arena of instrumental acoustic guitar. Yet in that pile-up, the work of one Matthew De Gennaro has been completely missed. A web search will turn up virtually nothing, and when he does turn up it is as a footnote in the New Zealand scene where, paired with Alastair Galbraith, he turned out a highly experimental performance on the legendary Corpus Hermeticum label. All that said, Matt is obscure for no reason I can understand..."

And Matt's output- about one self-released album per year- has gotten even better and more varied since then, including more wire work, collaborations with Pumice's Stefan Neville, and pieces for pump organ, bagpipe, fiddle, and more, some of which are featured here.

Nadav Carmel, KDVS 09/14/2009

Songs

Untitled [pump organ]
Untitled [fiddle]
Last Light [guitar]

Links

Matthew on MySpace Epigonic Recordings
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