Matmos have a new record on the way, the Ganzfeld EP, due out in October via Thrill Jockey.
The three-track EP comes ahead of the duo’s album, The Marriage Of True Minds, due out early next year, and will include two original tracks from the experimental electronic pair, ‘Very Large Green Triangles’ and ‘Just Waves’, as well as a mix of ‘You’ courtesy of shadowy Sandwell District affiliate Rrose.
They’ve gone one step further with the limited edition, offering the chance to be the proud owner of the EP (on vinyl or CD), a pair of InCase headphones and a set of sight-impairing goggles.
The limited edition, erm, goody bag, will not only allow you to achieve the look modelled on the EP’s cover (above), but will let you experience a semblance of how the EP and album came to be. Thrill Jockey’s account of the records’ conception explains that – as with anything worth listening to nowadays – it’s all about telepathy.
Say the label: “For the past four years the band have been conducting parapsychological experiments based upon the classic Ganzfeld (‘total field’) experiment, but with a twist: instead of sending and receiving simple graphic patterns, test subjects were put into a state of sensory deprivation by covering their eyes and listening to white noise on headphones, and then Matmos member Drew Daniel attempted to transmit ‘the concept of the new Matmos record’ directly into their minds.”
Out of these experiments, the new Matmos material was born: “If a subject hummed something, that became a melody; passing visual images suggested arrangement ideas, instruments, or raw materials for a collage; if a subject described an action, then the band members had to act that out and make music out of the noises generated in the process of the re-enactment.”
Watch this space for more details on the EP release. Meanwhile, we’ll try out some parapsychological experiments of our own: now, pass me the Svarte Greiner.
