matthew liam nicholson, patrick liddell, pascal babare, clare tuckley, ian wadley, milo mylecharane, john chantler, dom garwood, chris smith, pat ridgewell, pete nicholson, aaron nakagawa, felicity mangan, ruth schoenheimer, shirley hunt, anna steinhoff, sara kraft, annie reese, john wubbenhorst, byron duckwall, enrico glerean, matthew golombisky, aaron robinson, quinlan kirchner, others.....the geo-journal and stumblings of love itself.
..
Influences
the wipers, scott walker, stockhausen, popul vuh, brian wilson, debussy, neil young, stars of the lid, flying saucer attack, ravel, sonic youth, stephin merritt, black flag, indian music, aborigines, various outstanding men & women.
Sounds Like
pre-2012 end timer sub-orchestra
uncool and sung on cliffs.
function have signed to black maps, http://www.blackmaps.co.uk/ an exciting new tokyo and london based label. function's 80 musician opus "galeria de la luz" will be released in late january 2010. we actually mean it this time - sorry for all the previous false announcements, it's been a time of transition and hard work. black maps are a progressive multimedia, print, music & art label whose trajectory is inspiring.
we will be performing throughout uk and europe beginning in spring 2010.
also, happy to be signing on to the wonderful www.unclebooking.com roster for usa. updated booking agent contacts just added in new blog here.
happy to hear from anyone, but email function108 at gmail dot com if you want a response.
matt has a site for his composition, production, soundtrack work - www.matthewliamnicholson.com
www.functionensemble.com is under reconstruction
Re The Secret Miracle Fountain - we highly recommend you buy it.
Peace.
"The Secret Miracle Fountain" is available now - from
locust music boomkat - europe amazon (and itunes, of course, or google the album title for all kinds of places to get it worldwide)
"The Zillionaire-Retarded Speeds Of Ordinary, Measured Light" (Function's 80-minute epic released in 2003) is also available at the ITUNES store.
********* biographically speaking *********
Matthew L Nicholson is an Australian born musician/composer/sound artist/producer. His nomadic collusion with a geographically vast network of talented friends creates Function. Begun as an occasionally-tended-to solo venture in 1995, Function in recent years have relocated to being based between USA & Europe, touring and recording more regularly, having signed to Locust Music of Chicago.
Unpredictably ecstatic/dark/spare/maximal/lush experimental songs and pieces incorporating sound sources from all over the world, their work has been heralded highly by indie media worldwide since the release of The Secret Miracle Fountain by Locust early in 2006. Not classifiable merely as psych-folk, sound-art, experimental indie, ambient, avant-rock, jazz, classical, minimal or world, Function is a foray into the Transcendental. Instruments tending to be used by Function include piano, strings, winds, brass, varied percussion, bansuri flute, harmonium, tanpura, banjo, guitars, choir, surmandel, kalimba, ukelele, whistles, melodica, various electronics, female voices, presented in a twisted psychedelic and heart-moving electro-acoustic remix of all therein.
Function have performed throughout Europe, USA, Japan and Australia in various forms in recent years with such artists as Piano Magic, Fennesz, Thalia Zedek, Dreamweapon, Band of Horses, Tujiko Noriko, Gamelan Son Of Lion, Sir Richard Bishop, Ethan Rose, Scout Niblett, No-Neck Blues Band and Oren Ambarchi.
Function members and contributors also include Milo Mylecharane (Canyons!/Particles Collect), Chris Smith (Fat-Cat, Emperor Jones), Pat Ridgewell (Small World Experience), Dominic Johnson (Rachels/New Millenium Orchestra), John Chantler (Room 40), Matthew Golombisky & Quinlan Kirchner (Torrow Music Orchestra), Gabriel Lewis (Three Month Sunset), Aaron Robinson (Messes), David Wenngren (Library Tapes/Resonant), Shirley Hunt (PLAy Ensemble), Anna Steinhoff, Edward Nicholson, Pete Nicholson, Aaron Nakagawa, Georgina Ward, Joseph Burkett, Corey Dixon, Natalja Thomen, Tom Van Acker, Sara Kraft, Enrico Glerean, Annie Reese and sometimes others, in various configurations.
Discographically speaking, there was first various tapes and 7"s in the 90s, then a Function cd-r album self-released in 1998 in Australia, then the commercial release of "The Zillionaire-Retarded Speeds Of Ordinary, Measured Light" in Japan and Australia/NZ in 2003, then "The Secret Miracle Fountain" in 2006. The new Function record is almost finished and to be released before the year is out.
"Almost impossibly beautiful. At 72 minutes long, and incorporating pristine folk, field recordings, pop melodies, jazz-like bursts of dissonance and sampled world music intervals, The Secret Miracle Fountain is immediately arresting"
---Dusted, USA
"The Secret Miracle Fountain is without a doubt one of the finest releases in Locusts catalogue and is destined to appear in many a top 10 at the end of the year!"
---Boomkat, Europe
"...stretches the ethereality of dream pop into blissout, as strings, wordless vocals, and guitar bleed together in swatches of psychedelic color...Function argue convincingly that sometimes you have to leave the planning behind and go on instinct."
---Pitchfork (Rating: 8.2)
'The Secret Miracle Fountain is an experimental rock album that glitters to its depths like a musical coral... a broad and startlingly mature representation of world musicianship'
---Tangents, UK
'Function makes me feel better about people and the world in general.'
---Roger Shepherd, Founder, Flying Nun Records (NZ), now Circus Records (UK)
"....sweeping, skyward epics, worthy of Olympic closing ceremonies or peyote snacks by the "fire spot" in the woods... Hearkens to Donovan's pre-chatty productive years, but he is instead Spiritualized's Jason Pierce here, at the writing and directing and arranging helm, propelling himself amid peaceful 1968 acid haze over a steady march pattern with backing harmonies and whirling strings."
---Prefix
"...the raw thrashing of rustic instrumentation treads alongside mercurial, abstract electronics, forging a sublime juxtaposition."
---Nuemu, USA/UK
At times, Function lean towards the beautiful sweep of David Sylvian or Felt, with shimmering sounds and lush atmospheres Listen to this album if you're not in a hurry to be anywhere, physically or emotionally. It will slow down the passing world and maybe even alter the way you see the light coming in the window. If pain persists, put it on again.
---Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
"A rippling and tempestuous collection. Ive listened to it time and time again and have been enraptured by its organic flow and subversive sounds but it is so mercurial, so permutable that I cant seem to pin it down....The Secret Miracle Fountain is a passively thoughtful yet aggressively experimental album, contradictory in that it's both feral and utterly modern in its presentation; the power of nature digitized and the heart of humanity released from its societal mores, all in one album."
---Kyndmusic, USA
'Nicholson and his band of merry musicians traveled from their native Australia to England, Japan, the United States, Fiji, India and Egypt to put together this incredible piece of music that, thankfully, seems to go on forever (72 minutes to be more exact). The result is what you might get if you threw Sigur Ros, Architecture in Helsinki, Broken Social Scene, Animal Collective and Espers into a room with every instrument and a sound library at their disposal. Songs on The Secret Miracle Fountain employ the use of modern rock instrumentation, classical strings and horns, improv jazz styles, electronic sampling and turntable techniqueI think you get the picture. Matt Nicholson puts everything but the kitchen sink (and even then I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't use one as an instrument) into this album. It is not quite an ambient record, or a world music melange, or even an indie rock record, but it IS all of these things in one and much more...The Secret Miracle Fountain is a release unlike any other that will stun, astound and yes, possibly even bring you some much needed peace in your life, giving a complete air of truth to the album's title.'
---Treblezine, USA
"The Secret Miracle Fountain... will absolutely own you on the first exposure. Matthew Liam Nicholson, welcome to my head - pardon the mess....An album that spans 3½ years in the making, a multi-continental endeavor (recordings from Hawaii, Egypt, Australia, Fiji.. .) - it occurs to me that I could type for days and come nowhere within the proper realm of "beginnings" in conveying the white magic function delivers on album."
---Slightly Confusing To a Stranger, USA
"The album is mystical and soothing. It offers an experience that is unapologetically contemplative and fully immersed in the realm of the ethereal. The album is not meant to exist in the world of philosophical reductionism or simplified physics. The Secret Miracle Fountain is an expression of free will, a foray into transcendentalism... with its woodsy, hinterland sounds, (the album) seems to borrow more from Emerson than from Indie rock."
---Ampcamp, USA
"He's a lyricist of wry wit and rare intellectual cunning, a poet who disses his subjects with a hearty, Zen-flavored circumspection. I feel I should point this out, seeing that, if there's any record fit to draw its listener's attention as far away from the lyrics as possible, it's probably The Secret Miracle Fountain. Dig in. Get lost. (I mean that in the most polite way.) Lord only knows when Nicholson or anyone else will summon the wherewithal to complete another album this ambitious and absorbing."
---Flagpole, UK
"...clever ideas like Tunng...big production like Sufjan Stevens, though the musical aspect is more truly expiremental...Even the more ambient parts have very alive and quick evolving patterns, and waves...fits perfectly with the newest heroes on the edge of the singer/songwriter teritory."
---Psychadelic Folk, Belgium
"Fans of The Books, Low, Animal Collective & Broken Social Scene need to hear this densely layered pop masterpiece"
---Reckless, Chicago
"...want to know what's bigger than the band and more indefinable than their lineup? Their music... You'll have a hard time turning away, because their music is utterly beautiful. It's quite enchanting, this album.
---Mundanesounds, USA
"...a sun-soaked mesh of avant-garde instrumentation and field recordings that conjures a languorous adrenalin rush and evokes a kind of organic Arcade Fire. Matt Nicholson can already be justifiably labelled as one of alternative music's answers to Western art's more consummate assimilators of the East. With his continent-hopping consideration and ability to evolve like a global chameleon, he can also be termed a musical hero of rarely realised proportions. The Secret Miracle Fountain is an experimental rock album that glitters to its depths like a musical coral - a broad and startlingly mature representation of world musicianship with not so much as an instrumental ego in sight.
---Tangents, UK
'Future Myth' is the closing ceremony for the final weekend of 'Key For Future Door' an exhibition by Molly Palmer. Say, why don't you come down? It'll be an amazing evening of live music and performance.
Utrophia 136 Tanners Hill Deptford London SE8 4QD.
Hey there all you internet eyballs, fire up your brain for a moment to recieve the message from Go Genre Everything.
First, Thanks for Hosting this Data on your myspace page. Second, GGE are having a Subscriber Drive at Loophole on FEB22. Get to the locale, Get in there and Give up your resources to Go Genre Everything, Remember and Disseminate!
Ok, Now that you have internalised that, You may let your brain go Fuzzy again. Lots of Luck.
Oxbow : the narcotic story (Hydra Head) Rothko : eleven stages of intervention [BiP_HOp] Caribou : andorra (Merge) Function : the secret miracle fountain (Locust) Pluramon : the monstrous surplus (Karaoke Kalk) Do Make Say Think : you, you are a history in rust (Constellation) Kammerflimmer Kollektief : jinx (Staubgold) Darling : s/t (Cave 12) Tuxedomoon : vapour trails (Crammed) Jesu : conqueror (HydraHead) Helen Money : s/t (Cellobird) Neurosis : given to the rising (Neurot) ?Alos : ricordi indelibili (Bar La Muerte) Foetus : damp (Ectopic Ents) Zeitkratzer & Lou Reed : metal machine music (Asphodel) KTL : #2 (Editions Mego) Tarentel : ghetto beats on the surface of the sun (Temporary Residence) Dälek : abandoned language (Ipecac) Trentemoller : the last resort (Poker Flat) Pantaleimon : trees hold time (Jnana) Spaceheads & Max Eastley : a very long way from anywhere else [BiP_HOp] Pan sonic : Katodivaihe/Cathodephrase (Blast First Petite) Murcof : cosmos (Leaf) Port-Royal : afraid to dance (Resonant) Golden Death : ephemera blues (Helmet Room) Drog_A_Tek : who hurt you? (Que Tempo) Migraine Inducers : antagonistic music (Beta Lactam Ring) Klima : s/t (Peacefrog) Piano Magic : part monster (Green Ufos) Sinner DC : mount age (Ai) Don Shtone : beware of the cat (Off) Mùm : go go smear the poison ivy (FatCat) Sunburnded Circle : the blaze game (Conspiracy)
BiP_HOp Generation on Radio Grenouille // 88.8 FM Wednesday evenings : 19:00 - 20:30 PM // Marseille // France
September 2007 Playlist
ARTIST ALBUM label
Rothko : eleven stages of intervention [BiP_HOp] Pluramon : the monstrous surplus (Karaoke Kalk) Migraine Inducers : antagonistic music (Beta Lactam Ring) Port-Royal : afraid to dance (Resonant) Janek Schaefer : in the last hour (Room 40) Sunburnded Circle : the blaze game (Conspiracy) Murcof : cosmos (Leaf) Zeitkratzer & Lou Reed : metal machine music (Asphodel) Function : the secret miracle fountain (Locust) Toshinori Kondo : silent melodies (Off) Rothko / Dysrhythmia : fractures (Acerbic Noise Development Inc.) Harmonia Ensemble : Fellini/Nino Rota (Independant) Growing : live (Conspiracy) Alejandro Franov : khali (Staubgold) Hauschka : versions of the prepaired piano (Karaoke Kalk) VA. small melodies (Spekk) The Green Kingdom : s/t (Sem) Scianka : pan planeta (Ampersand) The World On Higher Downs : land patterns (Plop/Nature bliss) Birchville Cat Motel : with maples ablaze (Scarcelight) Alexandr Vatagin : valeot (Mirakelmusik) Antennacle : murmur suite (Kitty Play) Reinhold Friedl & Zeitkratzer : xenakis (a)live! (Asphodel) Qui : love's miracle (Ipecac) The Beautiful Schizophonic : musicamorosa (Cronica) Ken Ikeda : mist on the window (Spekk) Jodi Cave : for myria (12K) Stafraenn Hakon : gummi (Resonant) Six Twilights : s/t (Own) King Never : lullabies and sleepless nights (Marathon) Gene Bowen : bourgeois magnetic (Amorfon) Vale Poher : blue time vs. suspense (Optical Sound) Fire engines : hungry beat (Acute) Vedette : are (Still) Amoebazoid : zuckung (Cycling 74) Christus & the Cosmonaughts : from atop this hill (Beta Lactam Ring) Fago : sepia (Aposiopese) VA. yurovision (Vinyl Microstore) Saralunden & Bjorkas : dubious (Nexsound) Vs_Price : songs06.txt. (Expanding
"Nove Buone Nuove" ("Nine Good News"), the new Aidoru's album is a mistaken work, a false step, an album of which we are not convinced and that for this reason it will not be released. You should listen to it soon, only on our website (www.aidoru.org) and on our myspace's page (www.myspace.com/urodia). In the meantime we have uploaded two new songs, "Tua grazia tuo destino" and "Vortice" on our profile, and we start to work on a new album. Maybe: Autumn 2008. Thanks for your attention. Aidoru
Just a reply to your comment long long time ago : my tunes are downlodables ; just use them as you want and let me know... I d like to hear it on other influences... Check out my other pages : www.myspace.com/francoispernel www.myspace.com/duocanuelpernel www.myspace.com/malalaft
