:: Matouš Hejl

anamnesis

instrumental & electronic

vln, vla, vlc, fl, cl, pno, perc, prerecorded electronics

Norbotten Neo

April 2016, Stockholm

Anamnesis means remembrance or reminiscence, the collection and re-collection of what has been lost, forgotten, or effaced. It is therefore a matter of the very old, of what has made us who we are. But anamnesis is also a work that transforms its subject, always producing something new. To recollect the old, to produce the new: that is the task of Anamnesis.

anamnesis (live)

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anamnesis (live)

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score

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a group of four

instrumental

cl, ob, vln i, vln ii, vla, vlc, cb, pno, perc

KammarensembleN

April 2016, Stockhom

a+b-VLC2+richter2.jpg

"A note about Vollmer. He no longer describes the earth as a library globe or a map that has come alive, as a cosmic eye staring into deep space. This last was his most ambitious fling at imagery. The war has changed the way he sees the earth. The earth is land and water, the dwelling place of mortal men, in elevated dictionary terms. He doesn’t see it anymore (storm-spiraled, sea-bright, breathing heat and haze and color) as an occasion for picturesque language, for easeful play or speculation."

Don DeLillo, Human Moments in World War III

a group of four (live)

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a group of four (live)

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bio

composer, sound artist, pianist

Matouš Hejl (*1989) is an author of mostly instrumental and electronic music. He has also been partaking in various theater, dance and other performances as well as multimedia projects. His film music debut with Lost in Munich has earned him a nomination for the Czech Lion for best music.

He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and is finishing graduate studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

full CV

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composition

2017

Exponential Joys - electronic, PremEdition, Czech Radio

Václav Havel, music essay, German version - hörspiel, Deutschlandradio Kultur

2016

At Land, music for a silent movie - for chamber ensemble, Berg Orchestra, Prague

Anamnesis - for Pierrot ensemble and electronics, Norrbotten NEO, Stockholm

A Group of Four - for chamber ensemble, KammarensembleN, Stockholm

Is But a Symbol of the Place - for jazz orchestra and voice, Concept Art Orchestra, Prague

Exponential Joys (short version) - multichannel electro-acoustic composition, Audiorama, Stockholm

2015

The Next Long Loop - for piano quintet and solenoidofon (instrument developed as a part of the research project "Sensors as Musical Instruments"), FAMA Quartet, Prague

Recasting - for shakuhachi, cello quartet, double bass and electronics,

commissioned by Prague Shakuhachi Festival

2014

Václav Havel, music essay -hörspiel, broadcasted live and as a part of the Premedition by the Czech Radio and in EBU

A Me. - electro opera / physical theater, with Ondřej Buddeus and Radim Vizváry

Tranzit Display Prague

Sine Pulses, ANIN - for 12 musicians, premiered as a part of the Hexameron project, Benedictine monastery at Bílá hora, Prague

Odae - for brass quintet, Prague

2013

Untitled - adaptation of a piece by Hildegarda von Bingen for voice and live electronics, Stará čistírna museum, Prague

Solar Spaces - electro-acoustic, comission from the Museum Night 2013, GAMU, Prague

Moonlight Quartet - scenic music-visual poem for a string quartet, speaker and visuals

2012

Klavierstück (Ruka) and Why Don’t You Waltz About It? for piano, Martinů Hall, Prague

2011

Silence Dreams of Voices - art song for voice and piano, Berklee Recital Hall, Boston

film, theater, radio

2016

Překlepy a přehmaty - radioplay, directed by Katharina Schmitt, Czech Radio

Výš - physical theater, new circus, Alfred ve dvoře, Prague

Room - short animated film by Jana K. Nováčková

2015

Lost in Munich - feature film by Petr Zelenka, Lucky Man Films production

Mimo Provoz - new circus, directed by Vít Neznal, Jatka78, Prague

Husí krky - new circus, directed by Radim Vizváry, Cirkus TeTy, Jatka78, Prague

Vodník - dance performance by Monika Částková, Prague

2014

Third Lie - monodrama based on Ágota Kristóf 's novel, directed by Aleš Čermák,

Meetfactory, Prague

Folk You - authorial play by Mime Prague, directed by Radim Vizváry, Prague

O tom se nemluví - physical theater, directed by Radim Vizváry, Roxy/NOD, Prague

2013

Soudné sestry - play based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, dir. Mikoláš Tyc, Southern-Czech Theatre

Bardo - cello + live electronics, dance performance, Divadlo Ponec, Prague

2012

Princezna - dance video, Palo Kršiak

2011

Malí, velcí - authorial play, Studia DAMÚZA, Prague

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lost in munich

film

film by Petr Zelenka

nominated for the Czech Lion for the best music

Czech Critics Award for the best film

ČSFD

IMDB

trailer (w original music)

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trailer (w original music)

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music showreel

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is but a symbol of the place

big band & voice

a song

music: Matouš Hejl
lyrics: Olga Pek, Matouš Hejl

winner of the Karel Krautgartner Contest for The Best Jazz Orchestra Composition

The piece is inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry and photographs by Francesca Woodman. Selected Woodman's pictures formed the song's storyboard and fragments of Dickinson's poetry were reorganized to create the majority of the lyrics. Their initial material was chosen from a set of phrases found in Dickinson's anthology containing specific words such as the word "is". In a similar but much more loose fashion, the music also reshapes fragments from other sources, particularly from Iannis Xenakis, while for other parts, deterministic algorithms were used as a part of the compositional process.

is but a symbol of the place

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is but a symbol of the place

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lyrics

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Is But A Symbol Of The Place

Introduction

Is but a symbol of the place
Of the place
Between
So far
So near
Now-

Is but a symbol of the place
Light touch
Light tap
A call - low beat to sound

Is made a secret to unfold
Half-dance
Half fall-

Verse 1

And this is how the heart's mine bursts open:
Before you knew bones born of flesh, paint born of fruits,
Dance born of a single gesture, hand's interrupted call:
Pain like a rustle of skirts between the papers and the pots and pans
The click of the shutter and the whir of the family lens
The habit you plant must yield a wake-up call, the next you know
You fall down only to land off the frame and learn more
And return with nothing but a motion of a language to teach-

Chorus 1

Moving am a point,
relating field, relating. You.

Curve by curve, sweep by sweep
Fails and gives on repeat.

(Like a child of repetition,
Close child darkness.)

Verse 2

Halts me mid-motion, pops words fed into me like coins,
Arrests bones wound to make me swing, as far as the torch
of this spine, as far as a jump, near giving-up:
It's how the dark flame slowly eats into a white sheet
And envelops the room in dance as if my last hour
Was leaving me for good, an invisible muscle below the lung
In tone with the unsung, it snares me in lace and recedes
And the contour it leaves is a firework of its own-

Chorus 2

Moving am a point,
relating field, relating. You.

Curve by curve, sweep by sweep
Hurts and heals on repeat.

(Like a child of repetition,
Close child darkness.)

Pre Coda

It's what you cannot reach adored with caution-
to reach it were hopeless, and yet to touch
the thought behind the striving before
the sequence ravels out of reach,
the Heart that wants me, the Sun,
so small a goal: see a bird - reach it!

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dates

28.8., anamnesis

Ostrava Days of New Music

18:00, Triple Hall Karolina, Ostrava, Czech Republic

28.8., anamnesis, Ostrava Days of New Music, 18:00, Triple Hall Karolina, Ostrava, Czech Republic

18.9. Chyba, opening, physical theater / new circus Vít Neznal & kolektiv, Jatka87, Prague, Czech Republic

past

2017

27.4.	Plastics & Vibrations
	improvised prepared piano set with Vilhelm Bromander - bass Lilla Salen, KMH, Stockholm
27.2., 10.3.	Havel, music essay, German version
	Deutschlandradio Kultur Kurzstrecke 59
27.1.	Exponential Joys, premiere of a new electronic composition
	Czech Radio Premedice
15.1.	Gallery AMU
	15pm, multichannel electronic set

2016

9., 10.10.	At Land, music for a silent movie
	Berg Orchestra, Spanish Synagogue Prague
15.11.	Překlepy a přehmaty
	Radio Vltava, radioplay premiere
21.4.	Is But a Symbol of the Place
	premiere, Concept Art Orchestra, Jazz Dock, Prague
14.4.	Exponential Joys, Audiorama, Stockholm
12.4.	A Group of Four, KammarensebleN, Stockholm
6.4	Anamnesis, Norbotten NEO, Stockholm

2016

at land

music for a silent movie

music for a silent movie by Maya Deren

Performed by the Berg Orchestra in the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, October 2016.

at land

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at land

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sine pulses

instrumental drone

fl, cl, cl / b.cl, hn, vib, perc, vln i, vln ii, vla i, vla ii, vlc i, cb

October 2014, Prague

sine wave modulated poisson distribution

"So then, what is there outside of knowledge? I do not know, might as well cal it other. This other that science rejects, that it doesn't know or doesn't wish to know, that it will perhaps know one day - but what difference does it make? - this other known elsewhere as either disorder or chaos or chance - but what difference does its name make?"

Michel Serres, Genesis

sine pulses (live)

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sine pulses (live)

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score

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the next long loop

string quartet, augmented piano

(augmented) pno, vln i, ii, vla, vlc, (augmented) triangles, solenoidofon

A comet the size of a small mountain whizzed past Mars on Sunday October 19th 2014, dazzling space enthusiasts with the once-in-a-million-years encounter. The comet, known as Siding Spring (C/2013 A1), made its closest encounter with Mars on Sunday at 2:27 p.m. E.D.T.
Before the comet passed, it could be seen in space racing toward the brightly illuminated Red Planet, trailed by a cloud of debris. Scientists said the comet’s passing offered a unique chance to study its impact on Mars’s atmosphere.
“What could be more exciting than to have a whopper of an external influence like a comet, just so we can see how atmospheres do respond?” said Nick Schneider, the remote sensing team leader from NASA’s Maven mission to Mars. “It’s a great learning opportunity.”
The comet, which is around one mile wide and is only about as solid as a pile of talcum powder, has traveled more than one million years to make its first pass by Mars, and will not return for another million years, after it completes its next long loop around the sun.
Its flyby of Mars is not likely to be visible to sky watchers on Earth.

the next long loop (live)

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the next long loop (live)

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score

more about solenoidofon

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Solenoidofon is a DIY instrument meant to expand the concept of augmented piano to augmented anything - it was designed primarily to perform a kind of granular synthesis on any sounding body. With a good tuning each of the solenoids can hit up to around 77 times per second. It was developed as a part of the Sensors as musical instruments research project at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

(solenoidofon, photo: Michal Rataj)

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