Matthew Florianz, born in the 70's to a Dutch Mother and Austrian Father, is a self taught composer of ambient environmental soundscapes. Growing up in rural areas he enjoyed the freedom of a carefree environment, spending much of his time outdoors; playing and exploring.

Those fascinations are present in his work still, which often re-visits places and locales that left a strong impression. His music evokes an outdoor feel, his albums shift between a state of illusive imagination and existent images.

Matthew began writing music in 1994. Most of what he created in those early years was to be played to a small audience of friends and relatives only. On the subject of releasing earlier work he said: "... most of it is practice; finding style, tone and even notes, it was really rather derivative of the music I liked back then, but it was necessary to find out what kind of music (if any) I could write ...".

The limited edition release of Niemandsland (2006) featured a CDR with music from this time, "... a selection of music from those early beginnings that I now recognize as fundamental steps towards how I would come to create music ..."

At the start of 2000 and using the pseudonym "liquid morphine", Matthew released Sprook (1999) through emergent on-line services. Supplement (1999) and some music from the album *.wav (1998) were also briefly released.

Sprook attracted the attention of composers Darren Scott and Gene Williams. The three met each other while contributing to an evening of ambient music performances in the Dutch town of Utrecht. Gene and Matthew played a 45 minute set while Darren provided live mixing for all of the evenings ensembles of ambient performers.
The following day, Darren talked about his intentions to begin a record label and approached Matthew asking to release Sprook. That album was skipped in favour of an entirely new work and in 2001, GrijsGebied became the first release on the new founded h/s recordings' label.
Gene Williams, in whom Matthew found a peer and mentor, mastered and contributed to the album. Gene Williams has since become a frequent collaborator and released his own music using the pseudonym "Mindspawn". Darren Scott has consequently released all of Matthew Florianz's albums and collaborations on h/s recordings and released his own music using the pseudonym "Ganzfeld".

GrijsGebied (2001) was a success for h/s recordings and Matthew; hailed "... a classic ..." and "... masterpiece of contemporary ambient ..." it received air time on the prestigious BBC Radio 3 program, Late Junction. GrijsGebied enabled non-profit h/s recordings to invest in new and unknown talent. Matthew was involved in almost all releases, helping with artwork and graphic design. Five of his albums and three collaborative efforts have been released on h/s recordings. Molenstraat (2001), recorded in one take with good friend Erik T'Sas, has been a best seller and GrijsGebied required re-printing in 2003.

Frequent collaborators include good friends Tatiana Brainerd, Bill Brisette, Stan Linders, Joris de Man, Erik T'Sas, Oscar Stegehuis and Gene Williams.

In 2005, Matthew's background in ambient music was key to him being hired as Audio Director for The Chronicles of Spellborn, a computer video game released in 2009. Matthew wrote over twelve hours of music and ambiences for the game, which was lauded for it's achievements in art and sound, provoking an "... evocative twilight feel ..."

Matthew has since worked on several more games, including the award winning iPhone game Star Defense, which features atmospheric ambiences for the game's beautifully designed planetoids. The audio is mentioned specifically: "... adds atmosphere and tension ..." and one review prints "... the orchestral arrangements are the best I have heard in an iPhone game ..."

Koude Handen (2010) was finished in January of 2010 but the release wasn't until September of the same year as Matthew's usual publisher struggled to release it. Eventually, he decided released the music for free on his website. Older releases have since also been made available.

Los (2011) was recorded with an online release in mind. It is his first album since The Tone T(h)ree (2000) that does not include any environment recordings.

Matthew Florianz's compact disc and download releases:

Los (2011) | download

Koude Handen (2010) | download

Maalbeek (2008) | download

Niemandsland featuring Oscar Stegehuis (2006)

Three featuring Tatiana Brainerd, Gene Williams (2003)

Electronic Forest with Erik T'Sas, Tatiana Brainerd, Joris de Man (2002)

Molenstraat with Erik T'Sas (2001)

GrijsGebied featuring Tatiana Brainerd, Stan Linders, Erik T'Sas, Gene Williams (2001)

The Tone T(h)ree (2000)