About
born 1977, Norwich, UK
Matt Wright works as a composer, improviser and sound artist at the edges of concert and club culture, his output stretching from scores for early music ensembles and contemporary chamber groups to digital improvisation, experimental hip hop and turntablism, website installations, and large events combining DJs, new music performers and digital media. As a performer and researcher he works with turntables, laptops and surround sound installations to create post-DJ, multichannel music that embraces hip hop, avant garde and 'free' traditions.
He works closely with Evan Parker (including the CD ‘Trance Map’ and duo, trio and ensemble performances in New York, London and Paris) with Ensemble Klang in The Hague (including the CD ‘Music at the Edge of Collapse’), with Bl!ndman and Champ D'Action in Brussels; with The Six Tones in Malmo, Sweden and Hanoi, Vietnam; with Ensemble Offspring in Sydney, and with his own ensemble Splinter Cell, a flexible collective of musicians based in London and Canterbury who work with the connections between notation, technology and improvisation.
His work has been presented at the Sydney Opera House, Le Poisson Rouge (New York), the Muziekcentrum an ‘t IJ (Amsterdam), The Kim Ma Theatre (Vietnam) and Abbey Road Studios, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He has been commissioned by organisations such as The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the MATA Festival (New York) and his work has been broadcast on TV across Europe, and on radio globally, including a two-hour focus on his work on the ABC Network in Australia. Reviews of his work have appeared in the New York Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, Vietnam Today and the Financial Times. In 2014, he remixed Robert Wyatt's 'Cuckooland' album into a concert-length collaboration with Elaine Mitchener, Tony Hymas and the Brodsky Quartet.
Matt is a Reader in Composition and Sonic Art at Canterbury Christ Church University, where he is also the Director of Research for the School of Music and Performing Arts. In 2014 he became an Output Assessor for the UK-wide Research Excellence Framework, a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and was Guest Artistic Director for the Sounds New Festival. He studied Composition with Richard Steinitz and with Christopher Fox at the University of Huddersfield; with Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding and Richard Ayres at The Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands and with Roger Redgate at Goldsmiths College, London. He also had invaluable workshop experience with Steve Reich, Steve Martland, Howard Skempton and Wajahat Kahn.
Matt Wright works as a composer, improviser and sound artist at the edges of concert and club culture, his output stretching from scores for early music ensembles and contemporary chamber groups to digital improvisation, experimental hip hop and turntablism, website installations, and large events combining DJs, new music performers and digital media. As a performer and researcher he works with turntables, laptops and surround sound installations to create post-DJ, multichannel music that embraces hip hop, avant garde and 'free' traditions.
He works closely with Evan Parker (including the CD ‘Trance Map’ and duo, trio and ensemble performances in New York, London and Paris) with Ensemble Klang in The Hague (including the CD ‘Music at the Edge of Collapse’), with Bl!ndman and Champ D'Action in Brussels; with The Six Tones in Malmo, Sweden and Hanoi, Vietnam; with Ensemble Offspring in Sydney, and with his own ensemble Splinter Cell, a flexible collective of musicians based in London and Canterbury who work with the connections between notation, technology and improvisation.
His work has been presented at the Sydney Opera House, Le Poisson Rouge (New York), the Muziekcentrum an ‘t IJ (Amsterdam), The Kim Ma Theatre (Vietnam) and Abbey Road Studios, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He has been commissioned by organisations such as The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the MATA Festival (New York) and his work has been broadcast on TV across Europe, and on radio globally, including a two-hour focus on his work on the ABC Network in Australia. Reviews of his work have appeared in the New York Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, Vietnam Today and the Financial Times. In 2014, he remixed Robert Wyatt's 'Cuckooland' album into a concert-length collaboration with Elaine Mitchener, Tony Hymas and the Brodsky Quartet.
Matt is a Reader in Composition and Sonic Art at Canterbury Christ Church University, where he is also the Director of Research for the School of Music and Performing Arts. In 2014 he became an Output Assessor for the UK-wide Research Excellence Framework, a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and was Guest Artistic Director for the Sounds New Festival. He studied Composition with Richard Steinitz and with Christopher Fox at the University of Huddersfield; with Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding and Richard Ayres at The Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands and with Roger Redgate at Goldsmiths College, London. He also had invaluable workshop experience with Steve Reich, Steve Martland, Howard Skempton and Wajahat Kahn.
Discography
28 releasesCracked Glaze
Matthew Wright · 2026
Etching The Ether
Evan Parker, Matthew Wright (5), Trance Map+*, Peter Evans (2), Mark Nauseef · 2023
CUTOUT (6x6)
Close Scrape : Matthew Wright (5), Adam Linson · 2021
Locked Hybrids
Matthew Wright (5) With Samples Of Evan Parker, Toma Gouband And Mark Nauseef · 2020
The Wheel
Robert Stillman and Matt Wright* · 2020
Crepuscule In Nickelsdorf
Evan Parker, Matthew Wright (5), Adam Linson, John Coxon, Ashley Wales, Trance Map+* · 2019
Speak Cities
Keir Neuringer And Matthew Wright · 2017
Single Combat
Roger Redgate & Matt Wright* · 2015
Trance Map
Evan Parker / Matthew Wright · 2011
Music At The Edge Of Collapse
Matthew Wright (5), Ensemble Klang · 2010
Break A Vase
Alexander Hawkins Mirror Canon · 2022
All Knavery And Collusion
Evan Parker Quartet · 2021
Marconi's Drift
Transatlantic Trance Map · 2024
Collective Calls (Revisited) (Jubilee)
Evan Parker Paul Lytton* · 2020
No Nation But Imagination
Alexander Hawkins · 2026
Horizons Held Close
Trance Map · 2024
Grounded Abstraction
Transmap+* · 2022
Shaky Sighs
Titus Haug · 2022
Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians)
Alexander Hawkins Feat. Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble · 2021
Warszawa 2019
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble · 2021
Isolation Ritual
HarborLights · 2019
Music For David Mossman - Live At Vortex London
Evan Parker – Barry Guy – Paul Lytton* · 2018
What Light There Is Tells Us Nothing
Janek Schaefer (For Robert Wyatt)* · 2018
Unit(e)
Alexander Hawkins · 2017
The Wire Tapper 48
Various · 2018
Contra Pop Festival 2015 An Ahistorical Document
Various · 2016
The Wire Tapper 37
Various · 2015
My Mountain Top
Andy Scott · 2006