matthew ostrowski / electronics / composition
A New York City native, Matthew Ostrowski spent much of the ’80s in the then-flourishing downtown improvisation scene, playing antique synthesizers, amplified plates of glass, and broken tape recorders in a long string of low-ceilinged venues whose names are now lost to memory, honing his skills onstage with the usual Downtown suspects: Zeena Parkins, Nicolas Collins, John Zorn, Anthony Coleman, and that bunch.
He was also the tape-loop and drum machine player for the so-called rock band Krackhouse, which was blissfully free of a guitarist at the time. In addition, he wasted a great deal of his time on practically unperformable multimedia music-theater pieces, incorporating actors, video, slides, and kitchen sinks, including The Ruin, performed at New Music America, Vox Dei for 4 vocalists, sampler, and video, and most recently Guilty, (based on the ’40s film noir classic Double Indemnity) for 4 voices, piano, bassoon, strings, and electronics. Forays outside the new music ghetto include audio installations, shown in New York City, Holland, and Switzerland and music for theater in Philadelphia and New York.
From 1993 to ‘99, he was composer-in-residence for the high-speed, high-impact Elizabeth Streb/ Ringside dance company, amplifying and processing walls, floors, and trampolines. In 1993, he abandoned New York for the Netherlands, trading his battered ’70s synth for a battered ’80s computer in a hunt for ever more powerful means to reproduce the ferocious racket in his own head. This has resulted in (amongst other things) a series of live solo pieces for computer-driven sampler, culminating in his massive work Vertebra, released last year on Pogus records. Ostrowski has appeared on over a dozen recordings, has toured everywhere from California to Australia, and has received various minor accolades and laurel wreaths for his work. He currently divides his time between Holland and the USA.
Matthew Ostrowski on Percaso Productions
Christoph Gallio “certainty sympathy” percaso production 05
Christoph Gallio: sopranosax
Alfred Zimmerlin: violoncello
Matthew Ostrowski: electronics
Composed by Gallio/Zimmerlin/Ostrowski
Recorded August 24. and 25. 1988
By Charles S. Russel at Studio PASS, New York N.Y.
Mixed by Charles S. Russell and Matthew Ostrowski at Studio PASS, New York N.Y.
Premastered and edited by Max Spielmann and
Johannes Vetsch at elephant château, Basel
Mastered by Peter Pfister, Berikon
Cover Art: Beat Streuli
An extended 40-minute work, really a kind of suite made up of many short episodes. Although credited as soprano saxophonist Christoph Gallio‘s composition, his Partners Matthew Ostrowski and Alfred zimmerlin clearly made significant contributions.
The trio sound like they have played together a lot, and seem comletely confortable with the stylistic range and extreme contrast.The sectional arrangement could have made for a disjointed effect, but for me it kept things fresh.OPTION, Mark Sullivan
This is one of the most unusual and worthy things I‘ve heard on compact disc. Certainty Sympathy is a composition by saxophonist Christoph Gallio in conjunction with cellist Alfred Zimmerlin and electronic operator Matthew Ostrowski. The piece is captured on this recording in one forty minute track.
There is no skipping around……..Certainty Sympathy sounds like an improvisational piece that has been chopped into little pieces and divided by samples of birds and orgasmic female voices and shortwave noise and silence, but I heard this performance live and they reproduce the whole composition amazingly closely. It is temting to trace the whole modern music from Ellington and Stravinsky to Mingus and Stockhausen, etc., etc.. through this music. But it would be a waste of time. This is clever, humourus, smart music. The recorded version functions alternately as background sound or the focus of the listener‘s full attention, depending upon the effort one puts toward it.LOWLIFE ATLANTA, Glen Thrasher
Gallio, Ostrowski, Zimmerli “birds & dogs” ©+p 1989
Christoph Gallio: sopranosax
Alfred Zimmerlin: violoncello
Matthew Ostrowski: electronics
Composed by Gallio/Zimmerlin/Ostrowski
Recorded August 24. and 25. 1988
By Charles S. Russel at Studio PASS, New York N.Y.
Mixed by Charles S. Russell and Matthew Ostrowski at Studio PASS, New York N.Y.
Premastered and edited by Max Spielmann and
Johannes Vetsch at elephant château, Basel
Mastered by Peter Pfister, Berikon
Cover Art: Anna Winteler
Christoph Gallio “cars & variations/high desert songs” percaso production CD 013
Christoph Gallio: s
Irene Aebi: voc & viol
Chie Mukay: kokyu & voc
Alfred Zimmerlin: vc
Matthew Ostrowski: elec
Stephan Wittwer: el.g
Fredi Lüscher: p
Lindsay L. Cooper: b
Dieter Ulrich: dm
High desert songs
Composed by Christoph Gallio, Words by Francis Picabia
Recorded Dezember 22, 1990 and February 22, 1991
By Andi Rathgeb at sound & vision, Zürich
and at various locations
Digital edited by Max Spielmann at elephant château, Basel Mastered by Peter Pfister, Berikon
Cars and variations
Composed by Christoph Gallio except 1, 11, 18, 20 by Gallio/Ostrowski/Zimmerlin, 6, 13, 16, 29, 30 by Gallio/Wittwer, 32 by Gallio/Lüscher
Recorded at various locations
Digital premastered and edited by
Max Spielmann at elephant château, Basel
Mastered by Peter Pfister, Berikon
Foto inside by Tetsu Takiura
Cover Art: Maya Rikli
This intriguing release feautures reed player Gallio in the company of various groupings of solos, duos and trios for two long suites, each constructed of multiple short sections ranging from 20 seconds to 3 minutes in length. Rushing by like a series of improvisational flash cards, the music encompasses spare duet setting for poems by Surrealists Picabia and Meret Oppenheim (of fur-lined teacup fame) sung by Irene Aebi; fractured, frenetic spars featuring Wittwer or the scratch and scrabble electronics of Ostrowski and cellist Zimmerlin; and flowing duets with pianist Lüscher and trios with Cooper and Ulrich. Comprising most of the CD, the first suite, „cars and variations“, moves through 33 segments punctuated by 4 brief found-sound snippets.
The proceedings are roughly paced by moving from harsh electronic pairings to more stately duets with Lüscher and Aebi. Yet, with such rapid swiches and quick pacing, any depth or development in the playing is sacrificed. Hard, rocking struts dissolve into measured, halting, angular phrases; melodious art songs dissipate into jangling trios; short ideas start to be sketched out, only to disappear mid-phrase. This is contrasted with the only piece over 3 minutes, a leisurely trio with Cooper and Ulrich, as Gallio‘s long, gracefully sinuous lines unfurl over the bass and drums. The final suite, „high desert songs“ is a group of 12 short floating verses delivering a tour de force for solo voice by Irene Aebi. This release makes clear that Gallio has no shortage of ideas.Cadence, Michael Rosenstein
Posted:
Sunday, September 10th, 2006, 14:00.
Filed under: artist portrait.
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