Matthew Herbert – Confirmed Participant of TransMusicales

The organizing committee of the TransMusicales festival proudly announces that another headliner has been confirmed – the British composer and DJ Matthew Herbert. He will perform on the second day of the festival, May 30, and will close the program. Matthew is arriving in Moscow with an absolutely new project One Club, which he will then take to Barcelona for Sonar, and later to the festival in Glastonbury.

To briefly remind, Herbert is almost unanimously regarded as an absolute musical genius, despite his dyslexia – an inability to operate complex programs, memorize strings of numbers, and so on. It is believed that this very ailment explains Matthew's innovative approach to writing electronic music, which exists at the intersection of jazz, house, minimalism, and musique concrete. He is a man with an academic background, equally famous in classical, orchestral jazz, and on club dance floors. His peak is commonly considered to be the album Bodily Functions (2001), where melodies and rhythms were composed from live-recorded sounds of real life. No contemporary composer has managed to achieve such beauty from waste sounds as Herbert does.

The Matthew Herbert Big Band is another remarkable and well-known project in the discography of the certified jazz composer Herbert, who has always stated that he dreams of working with an orchestra. TMHBB is a true jazz ensemble with musicians in white tuxedos playing swing parts. Only Matthew is dressed in black, operating drum machines and sampling sounds produced by trumpets and saxophones right on stage. The big band music of Herbert sounds both smart and entertaining. In its writing and performance, he follows the same principles as when creating compositions in his other projects. This means extensively using external and non-musical noise, cleverly packaging them into a dense swing texture, and embedding a certain message in each track. The concerts of The Mathew Herbert Big Band have successfully taken place not only at festivals of avant-garde music but also at the famous showcase of jazz achievements in Montreux, Switzerland, at the French Centre Georges Pompidou, and at the prestigious Elizabeth Hall in London.

Herbert is allowed any madness. Posing as an exalted lady from the 20s for the promo album Scale? Absolutely. Writing lyrical songs with lyrics like "we sell anthrax to our enemies"? Sure. And answering the question of whom to kill if there are two bullets and in front of you are Saddam, bin Laden, and Kenny G? Both on Kenny G. By the way, he produced Roisin Murphy's first solo album and authored several of Björk's most sophisticated compositions from the Vespertine album.

It’s hard to believe, but Matthew Herbert is the author of all the musical bumpers for last year's Eurovision contest and the soundtrack for the presentation of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 in Vancouver. Perhaps, the director of "First Channel" Andrey Boltenko's good taste explains the composer's selection. James Joyce said that with his "Ulysses" he aimed to provide critics with research work for the next 300 years. Herbert's persona is just as vast and debatable for interpretations.

Herbert has performed in Moscow twice: the last time in 2002, his concert with Dani Siciliano took place at the club "16 Tons" with great success, and then he played a four-hour set at the legendary club Mix. For Moscow, he is an absolutely cult figure. To say that the capital has missed him would be an understatement.

Recently, Herbert became a father. Although, in a certain understanding, for a significant number of Muscovites, he has long been a "native father."

Matthew Herbert's One Club will perform at the TransMusicales festival at the "Vizhavod" in Moscow on Sunday, May 30. Pre-sale tickets for both days (May 29 and 30) cost 2000 rubles. For each day separately – 1500 rubles. Tickets can be ordered by phone 644 22 22 or on the website.

Also in the lineup:

Saturday, May 29 



DJ Sandra (RU, dj set),
The Popopopops (FR, live), Bobby Hardcore Liberace (FR, dj set), Success (FR, live), DJ Netik (FR, dj set), Push Up! (FR, live), Flammable Beats (RU, dj set), Dizzie Rascal (UK, live), Bobby Hardcore Liberace (FR, dj set), Yuksek (FR, live).



Sunday, May 30

DJ Lipelis (RU, dj set), Pompeya (RU, live), Gable (FR, live), DJ Morpheus (BELG, dj set), Erik Thuffaz & Murcoff MEXICO (FR & MEX, live), Missil (FR, dj set), Wankin Noodles (FR, live), Erol Alkan (UK, dj set).

Information will be updated, and the full list of participants can be found at http://www.transmusicales.ru/.