How to pronounce ma-thú-in, from Old Irish mathgamain (“bear”)
Mathúin is one of the many projects Shayne (Byrne: producer / Ragged Company Recordings owner) is involved in.
It started life as an experiment; based around improvisation and audio manipulation.
Instead of using standard presets, Mathúin reimagines “found sounds” recorded outside of the studio, fueling a more organic approach to the music.
Initial ideas start with textured layer. Organically moving to working off instinct, letting go and ultimately allowing the sound run wild. It is in this method that ‘songwriting' & sound design become one and the same. Where melodies form the interplay of sounds and their capabilities and/or limitations. It is these sounds that lead Mathúin’s “Nemed” EP and the long form ambient single “Petrichor”, released in May 2022.
This new chapter of tunes from Mathúin comes from a more traditional way of writing. Starting with some chords on a Prophet; or a Baseline on the trusty Hofner, putting down drums and building out the arrangement; only to tear it all down and rebuild it up again.
The music takes its final exploration when it is sent to a vocalist to see what direction their lyric might take the music.
Mathúin is based around improvisation and manipulation (time stretching, granular synthesis) of found sounds recorded outside the studio to avoid presets on endless lists of synths and fuel a more organic approach.
Initial ideas come from getting a textured layer started, Working off instinct and letting go and let it run wild. Excited by an idea
Mathúin is based around improvisation and manipulation (time stretching, granular synthesis) of found sounds recorded outside the studio to avoid presets on endless lists of synths and fuel a more organic approach.
Initial ideas come from getting a textured layer started, Working off instinct and letting go and let it run wild. Excited by an idea and build on from initial sound. With this work method 'songwriting' & sound design become one and the same.
Melodies form from the interplay of sounds and their capabilities/limitations.
Recorded sound from outside the studio offers up the unknown and the real. Never fully knowing what you can achieve until the manipulation begins and where that takes you.
What do these pieces mean?...nothing, maybe mild Synesthesia, the Abstract, the Open, Expanded States of Mind, Fleeting moments and a desire to recreate them, the Intangible.
The door is open for all possibilities.
A main goal…if anything I want to make pieces of music that invoke places more than just fragments of sound I want to make music that transports listeners to these places.