Our first March release has been prepared by someone very well-known to all members of Fluttery Records family. His name is Mathew Roth and after his successful album “Immersion”, he is coming with his second piece “Written & Unsent”. Let us remind you something of Mathew’s background.
Mathew began his musical career behind a drum set. He played the drums for close to 15 years, playing out around town and touring with various metal acts. The next step in his career was presented by his uncle Harold, who, after talking with Mathew about his interest in the piano, bequeathed to him his wife’s piano; a Kranich and Bach upright console. The next year was spent in an intensive retreat into music, where Mathew wrote, practiced and also recorded.
After his uncle passed away, Mathew set off for a 6-week journey and walked 500 miles across Spain, which was a very transformative event in his life and incorporates much of what he experienced into the current musical projects he is working on.
Written & Unsent is an exploration into the versatility of the piano; an attempt to play the instrument in a unique way. Roth’s heavy influence in rhythm and percussion is obvious in this album, as it will, at times, embody the emotion of a percussive instrument more so than a melodic one. The playing swings between extremes of soft and delicate melodies into a bass-drum-thumping rhythm which you will find yourself bobbing your head to. “When I first discovered my love for the piano it was because I realized that I could play it like a drum. I had been playing drum set for 15 years but grew tired of it. One day I started playing ‘drum beats’ on a piano and a little lightbulb went off in my head. The subtlety and melody that was lacking was now here.” Says Roth of his playing style.
This album is unique for Roth in a few ways. In “Immersion” he favors a heavy reliance upon violin and cello structure to tie the pieces together; the piano is often simple to leave room for the strings, yet W&U is filled with powerfully driven solo piano which encapsulates the entire spectrum of sound. It was only because of the desire to play live shows, and the difficulty in finding strings players, that drove Roth to write more piano driven pieces. Roth says that he is happy with how the album turned out, but he still sees it as more of an experiment. “The next album, which I’ve been enjoying obsessing over for the past few months, will definitely incorporate more strings and other instrumentation.”