While we celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Third Eye Foundation's first release Semtex – one of the most influential drum & bass albums of its time, highly recommended by Pitchfork or Factmag – it is worthwhile revisiting the career of Matt Elliott, its composer. Matt was not even 16 while he decided to stop his studies to devote himself to his passion for music. By the age of 25, he got hired in a record shop, was djing in some Bristol clubs, released albums on his own label, was requested by John Peel calling at his home for a BBC session, was invited to join Sonic Youth for a NYC festival under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Signed on Domino Records in 1997 and after finding a new home in France based label Ici, D'Ailleurs... (Yann Tiersen, Chapelier Fou, etc), he released in total 5 albums as The Third Eye Foundation and six albums as Matt Elliott. He was asked for official remixes for Tarwater, Blonde Redhead, Mogwai, Ulver or Thurston Moore. He was one of the few artists involved on the reunion from Silver Apples and then touring with them in the US, he also toured as a choir singer aside Yann Tiersen around the year 2010, and played hundred of shows on his name over Germany, France, Japan, Greece, Italy and Spain/Portugal for years. He played the greatest underground or major festivals such as Primavera and Tanned Tin in Spain, Incubate or Le Guess Who in the Netherlands, or the infamous All Tomorrow's Party in the UK, making him an underground hero.
His music is a mix of folk guitar playing influenced by mediterranean countries as well as eastern Europe countries, songs starting from whispered melodies to full noisy storms. His voice is low and deep and can develop exquisite melodies, sometimes whistling like wolves or harmonizing sailormen choirs, or shouting his heart off. His writing skills expresses deep sadness and loneliness, with some tendency for radical thoughts. He avoids any well known way of making the music, writing epic unexpected anthems.
Support: Kuba Duda
Kuba Duda is a young guitarist and the author of instrumental music, which leaves space for your thoughts and imaginations to flow freely. During solo acts he plays his own compositions on guitar using various techniques and effects. His cloudy noir style of playing reminds masters of improvised solo guitar like Marc Ribot or Bill Frisell. To enrich solo acts he screens old film reels on analog projectors, which make the atmosphere even more dreamy. In March 2017 he released instrumental solo album which was recorded at home. Compositions are untitled, numbered only with Roman numerals. They tell stories without the words and listeners can interpret them on their own.
