Matt Valentine

Matt Valentine has made some of the most enjoyable acoustic based psychedelic improvisational music ever recorded, both in his several solo albums (usually with Erika Elder aka EE, pictured above with MV), and work with the band Tower Recordings (with folks like: P.G. Six, Helen Rush, Erika Elder, and Tim Barnes among others). Matt’s solo albums tend towards the more spare and spectral end of the spectrum; acoustic explorations that show their Fahey roots as well as a deep love of Indian classical music and much more. The music he makes with Tower Recordings fuses a Takoma Records acoustic based organic folk sensibility with a spaceman/caveman psychedelic tribalism that employs: various (mostly) acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, marimba, tin whistle, Wurlitzer electric piano, ring modulator, shakuhachi, cello, piano, tapes, primitive electronics, autoharp, oscillator, drums, and more with a sense that they are also playing the acoustics of the given space they are reverberating within. There is some Incredible String Band in the mix as well; along with, the earliest recorded blues, ESP Disk outsider vibes, and clouds and clouds of smoke. Some of Matt’s finest solo outings include: Tonight! One Night Only! MV & EE in Heaven (originally issued on Matt’s Child of Microtones imprint, and later on vinyl by Time-Lag), Space Chanties (Fringes Recordings), and Glorious Group Therapy (Ecstatic Yod). A couple essential TR releases are: Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles (Siltbreeze), and Folk Scene (Communion).

G.P.: Are Tower Recordings still an ongoing concern?
M.V.: Definitely. As the founder/director/ flint of the ensemble I can say that it will always exist in my mind. There are many beautiful recordings in the vaults that need to be issued and more to be made. In fact, 3 separate releases are slated over the course of the year. All previously unreleased original ensemble recordings coming out on Communion, Time-Lag and my and Erika’s Child Of Microtones. I can’t speak for other members of the collective concerning the future, but I certainly will continue to orchestrate large ensemble happenings that will be billed under the T.R. cosmic roof. I continue to conceive music, apart from my solo and small group work, that deserves a large ensemble with much room for free improvisation and personal expression. I hope I will have the privilege of continuing working/composing with the usual suspects of the tower’s past, although you can be certain that the same level of creative intensity and the "unspoken" orb that I feel drives these sounds will be present whoever is involved.
G.P.: How significant a role do dreams play in your life or art?
M.V.: I dig dreams and take them seriously. Minor guides especially in certain situations involving some kind of crossroads. For my art, I feel that dreaming can act as an intelligibility filter. I don’t think that they can be decoded, but rather feel that they are an important personal expression of the subconscious and are just as real as any other phenomenon attaching to the individual. It is a unique experience of a highly personal and individual business, sometimes experimental and they can also be extremely long winded, heh, heh. Nonetheless, this is the sort of interpretation I try to channel into my music and written/visual art, so in that sense the unconscious in general is of very high importance to how I live my life, which is usually synonymous to how I shape my art.
G.P.: Do you have a ghost story?
M.V.: I’ve seen things.
G.P.: Would you elaborate a bit?
M.V.: The spirit world is so advanced to me that when I experience an unexplainable or "supernatural" occurrence I feel not only extremely fortunate, but also that they must’ve been caught off guard. The last visitation I had was so strong that the apparition was in the form of no form, merely totality in light, illuminating an entire attic with such warmth and then quietly receding as if embarrassed by a furtive kiss.
G.P.: What are your thoughts about the work of the late John Fahey?
M.V.: Fahey’s music continues to astound, it is a music that has great resonance with me and in my mind he is a massive figure in the American cosmos of 3rd eye composers. Why he, Harry Partch, Thelonious Monk and Sun Ra aren’t poised as gilded statues on the White House lawn playing Bocchi with the first wave of countless bluesmen is beyond me. I love listening to all aspects of his work, from the ego tint/juvenilia of the Fonotone years across to the bigger noodle expanses of his more recent recordings. I draw the line at some of his conventional contemporary experiments with modern stomp boxes, give me his primitive editing work anytime. A real modern cowboy.
G.P.: Does where you live color your music?
M.V.: You bet, but it is more HOW I live that really goes beyond pantone tone. The way I eat, harvest, drink, sleep, spend, love, hate, be. I’ve made changes to get where I needed to be to listen to what I was hearing and sure you can hear the difference in my writing and techniques. Essentially I take a documentary approach when composing, not only in my methods but also to reflect a demo of the sounds of the environment, and the environment is everything at that time for me, as well as when I revise and play back. That is an important concept for my music, much like what we said earlier about dreams. It all gets on the palette somehow and I try to make pictures of how the beauty can mix with the chaos and distill it into something that has no name. Essentially musicians need listeners, but I’ve come to be very satisfied with the notion of music for one, or plants, or birds and most importantly losing the concept of music as entertainment and consequently dedicating myself to dealing with the jigsaw of that system.
G.P.: Is your music psychedelic?
M.V.: Of course.
G.P.: Would you name a few (or more) of your favorite recordings?
M.V.: I enjoy Gianni Ricchizzi and his Raga Yaman, Neil Young’s On the Beach, The Legendary Christine Perfect, The Sun Ra Savoy Recordings and everything else, The Incredible String Band The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter and Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending, pre and post Skip James, Skip Spence, The Strapping Fieldhands catalog, Canned Heat Living The Blues, Marion Brown Geechee Recollections, Malachi Favors – Natural and The Spiritual / Jarman’s Sunbound/AEOC’s The Spiritual, Solo Monk, All Coltrane, esp. Impressions, Interstellar Space & Plays For Lovers, Ellington’s Cosmic Scene, Ethel Ennis’ Lullaby For Losers, Basho’s Seal Of The Blue Lotus, Homegas, Ali Akbar Khan, Brij Bhushan Kabra, La Monte and Marian, Memphis Minnie with Kansas Joe McCoy, Bo Carter 78’s, Allan Block & Ralph Lee Smith’s 1st LP, Roger Hubbard’s Brighton Bell Blues, Roscoe Holcomb, Wizz Jones & Bert Jansch. These are things I listen to often and my ears are always open.
G.P.: Your solo, and your Tower Recordings work has a distinctively time warped quality, why do you think this might be so?
M.V.: I’m just playing it like I see it and FEEL it. A lot of stuff gets in there. My ears are really in tune with the past and I love the analog system of working, tho’ I’m not rooted in nostalgia nor am I waiting to get old. I am constantly looking all around as much as I can, breathing and seeing with my whole body, forward, backward, space, earth and most importantly the NOW.
G.P.: Do you feel a kinship with any of the surrealists?
M.V.: You bet I would have loved to share a sip with Buñuel.
G.P.: What are your favorite 1960s TV shows?
M.V.: Sun Ra, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone.
G.P.: When is black & white better than color?
M.V.: Black and white IS.
G.P.: Twilight or dawn?
M.V.: I dig magic hour, Terrence Malick really nails the day for night groove.
G.P.: What's best about art?
M.V.: It is everywhere and everyone’s.

G.P.: What good is art?
M.V.: Theoretically art is good. It is everywhere and can be noticed by everyone in one form or another. I suppose the question I’m always trying to figure out is why is some art bad? Tho’ that sort of enquiry always seems to involve capitalism or the LCD. An artist can become a stereotype of him/ herself and that is something I never want to be. Essentially that is my main criticism with art, coupled with the fact that it invites critics. A tiny idea or cheap imitation can be milked in the ‘art world’ and used as a label for a very long time. There can be such a poverty of ideas and ironically, in a capitalist society like ours, destitute and true artist usually run side by side. A total paradox. A funny real life example involves me calling up Erika at her job. I usually get one of the other designers picking up the phone and I’ve had a long running joke with her. It evolved from me saying "lunch" was on the phone so now everytime that I call I’m asked "What am I today?" You know, a different edible, cocktail or delicacy. Back in March I was "toast", summer might’ve been "caipirinha" or "Champagne" - the winter might’ve brought "Borscht", etc. always following with some mirth and "Erika _________ is on the line….sounds good today." Recently I’d said I was "Sun Ra" and it drew a total blank, deer in the headlights kinda vibe. Apparently, she wouldn’t even say it. Forget about curiosity and enthusiasm. Now the joke has stopped. Amazing.
G.P.: A few favorite books/authors, and why?
M.V.: Tom Brown’s guide to edible plants, Gather Ye Wild Things by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Baudelaire’s The Poem Of Hashish, P.K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, Home Comfort - Life On Total Loss Farm, Dick Spottswood’s Discography of Ethnic Recordings - All because they help me in the woods.
G.P.: What do you like best about the writing of Philip K. Dick?
M.V.: His masterful triangulation of drug lore, theology and futurity.
G.P.: What would be the ideal effect of your music upon the listener?
M.V.: Hopefully I convey a picture or a room that is a combination of my creation and that of the listeners. Also, to offer some flux in the space of those who are hearing it with the sound as an object in the sense that it is a form of furniture in the environment they are in.
G.P.: What's the best medicine?
M.V.: The MV/EE medicine show.
G.P.: Could a Tower Recordings performance fairly be compared to a seance?
M.V.: Definitely, all kinds of spirits drop by and when the tower heads are in one place it is most certainly a session. The family extends beyond the corporeal.
G.P.: Ever had a dream that foreshadowed the future?
M.V.: All the time. In fact, my seed for the Brattleboro Freefolk Festival appeared in the form of a waking dream where certain spirits from the woodlawn (goldfinch, hummingbird, downy woodpecker, bobcat, bear habitat friends, chipmunk, rabbit, fairie, etc) took refuge from the black sun in the form of a dew kissed leaf, which turned into a micropod and then launched quietly using recycled plant energy. It ascended peacefully toward the cloud cream undetected by the evil sulphur and while in its 3rd and final stage it jettisoned the serpent it had harnessed for an engine and sailed straight to the heart of the perihelion of sound.
G.P.: How telepathic are you? How telepathic do you think most people are?
M.V.: I’m not really good enough. I think most people have an innate telepathic rumble, I love when it visits me other
than with really close & tuned in friends.
G.P.: Favorite animals?
M.V.: Catfish, Great heron.
G.P.: What do you think about the consciousness of animals?
M.V.: I can relate heavily to the family of birds that we feed and interface with regularly. They practically perch on our shoulders on good days and Erika is teaching them to land in her hand. Both she and I can tell much about forthcoming daily events by their morning song.
G.P.: Tell me 3 things about P.G. Six?
M.V.: Well, he is beautiful, sublime and Piscean.
G.P.: Does it ever seem to you that the ancient can be very futuristic?
M.V.: I love that kinda parallel. In my paintings and drawings (and music) I dig being able to spot the thread to early civilization. Alchemy. When I was doing the cover for the Hat City Intuitive LP Crying Is Shaped Like A Seahorse I ended up with a prehistoric nuance that flowed out of my being while listening to their music. I suppose we must have been friends back in the protozoan stage.
G.P.: What's your favorite drink?
M.V.: Next to mountain water and wine, McNeill’s.
G.P.: Ever feel an affinity for a time other than your own?
M.V.: I’m not looking back anymore.
G.P.: What kind of music do you play?
M.V.: Music.
G.P.: What do you like for breakfast?
M.V.: Clementines, black coffee, toast with peanut butter, black pepper, & tahini or variations on porridge. I can feel the woodlawn bop of the hummingbirds and I thought of you. In fact, our first seeds began an arc toward the dayspring while Erika and I waxed over Fit and Limo and your sprite kissed muse. I figured the interview is forever evolving.
G.P.: Do you feel a kinship with bands like: Pelt, Jackie O Motherfucker, No Neck Blues Band, and Sunburned Hand of the Man, or others?
M.V.: They are all giants among men and I’m proud to be from the same eon as them, the phonograph and Freddie Keppard..
G.P.: Name a few (or more) of your favorite films?
M.V.: Wavelength, Heaven & Earth Magic, Mass For The Dakota Sioux, The Killers (Reagan), Point Blank, Lilith, Zero For Conduct, The Cosmic Eye, Junior Bonner, Pocket Money, Seconds, Roadhouse, The Searchers, Omega Man, The Holy Mountain, The Wicker Man, Horror Hotel, Chappaqua, The Getaway, Straight Time, The Loved One, The Servant, Gospel According To St. Matthew, Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Sister Midnight, Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending, Follies Brood…hmmm, it seems I’ve wasted half my life in the cinema and the other half reading and buying records.
G.P.: Have you done any soundtrack work?
M.V.: I’m just about to finish up the soundtrack to The Temptation To Zoology, a film by myself, Erika and Gabe Walsh. It is an incredible myth concerning nature, wild animules and the likelihood of rain. To me, it is what you see in the skysea discovering fairyrings of John Ford, Hollis Frampton and George Méliès within another galaxy that is like a grain of alcohol reinvented in an eon of sand. I’ve also contributed music to Theo Angell’s latest masterpiece The Jew That Stole Christmas.
G.P.: Do you ever notice that some things only come into focus when they are partially or fully obscured?
M.V.: I’ve always been one of those folks who likes to put his nose on the painting so to speak and then quietly recede.
G.P.: Where did Tower Recordings get their name?
M.V.: From me and a gallery.
G.P.: Describe a pathway between worlds?
M.V.: When Erika and I are making love and East Mountain Road.
G.P.: The interview over, I got this email from Matt.
M.V.: Please call me mv or matt, I insist. Sunflowers are on, the chard is still coming up strong in the yard and the attached interview (unless you return the serve) is, I believe, complete. A real pleasure to be involved with all of its hearts and flowers. time comes this weekend to pick apples and berries and make some pies and jams. Bread baking has been keeping the house warm and now it is time to find/master the music for the dream. Soon with wings...

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