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matthew florianz


(ambient.environment.soundscapes)

Latest Release
bandcamp releases
select album page:

onbegonnen/ 2024
a river buried in sand/ 2023
a beautiful brutal betrayal/ 2023
mist schimmen/ 2022
zon der tijd ver gaat/ 2020
mass object/ 2019
onontgonnen/ 2017
wasteland signals/ 2016
nocturne (soundtrack)/ 2015
tauern/ 2015
los/ 2011
koude handen/ 2010
maalbeek/ 2008
niemandsland/ 2006
three/ 2003
grijsgebied/ 2001
the tone t(h)ree/ 2000
sprook/ 1999
jaren/ 2006
electronic forest/ 2002
molenstraat/ 2001
improvisaties op d/ 2000


photos & concerts
select for more info:

maalbeek / PHOTOS '94-'06
maalbeek re-visted / PHOTOS 2010
electronic forest / PHOTOS 2002
open stage / PHOTOS '01-'04)
live.darkambient.net / PHOTOS 2000

relevant links
select for more info:

bandcamp/ all albums
game audio website/ sound design
you tube: music/ 2022
you tube: studio sessions/ 2020
you tube: log/ 2020
apple music/ stream
tidal/ stream
spotify/ stream
twitter/ announcements
mastodon/ announcements
soundcloud/ non-albums
biography & discography
contact/ hello!

   "... though this is 100% electronic music, Matthew Florianz's music always has a close relation to nature, conjuring landscapes that could be real as well as one from your dreams ..." Peter van Cooten - Ambientblog



Hypnagogia Hypnopompia
Electromagnetic Transmissions from Cambridge, November 2024

A fascinating acoustic journey into the inner workings of phone circuits, screens and processors. On Hypnagogia Hypnopompia a highly sensitive ElectroMagnetic microphone is connected to a synthesizer. In tandem producing an ever shifting and mesmerizing soundscapes of drones, noises and resonating ambiences.

The ElectroMagnetic microphone detects whirs and rhythmic pulses coming from inside the phone, converting currents from it's circuits, screens and processors to audio. This invisible and quiet radiation, when fed through the Hydrasynth synthesizer, blossoms into a landscape of drones. The Electromagnetic transmissions morph the clean, logical sounds of the synth into a dreamlike state of constantly shifting frequencies and modulations

Hypnagogia and Hypnopompia are recorded live straight from the Hydrasynth.
Cenesthopathic (the dream) is an edit of the live recording with additional post processing. It serves as a counterpoint, presenting the same ElectroMagnetic recordings and slowing them down through additional filters, delays and reverbs.

Watch the live performance of Nocturna, Evigilo (Nocturnal Awakenings) here:


Listen on Bandcamp:
Hypnagogia Hypnopompia
Watch on YouTube
Electromagnetic Oscillators - Hydrasynth and EM Mic.



onbegonnen
(English: unbeginning) presents archived music, experiments, stepping stones, live recordings hard to find and unfinished music.

It is not a conventional release, instead the initial four track presentation will evolve over time. The least streamed tracks will be replaced (ie. deleted) regularly. In a few months time, this could be an entirely different release, presenting new combinations or directions. An ebb and flow of removal and addition that mirrors my creative process for “finding an album” by sequencing compositions that may or may not coalesce into a release.

This first iteration starts broad, presenting music from four decades.

‘onbegonnen’ is a free release so no need to make a contribution. If you are so kind as wanting to do so one anyway, could you please consider any of my other albums? All payments will be invested in new music creation tools and that also helps others on Bandcamp to discover my music. Entirely up to you of course, I'm already happy that you are listening.

As this is an evolving album revisit often as the least streamed tracks will be updated and removed on a regular cadence.


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onbegonnen



Unrest, hurried along
Unease like unrelenting mechanisms
In motion, until it can no longer sustain
Finds an outlet

The music is from Niemandsland and plays at the midpoint of the recording. It takes the building tension of "storm" and brings it to a boil. The noise, drones and field recordings resolve in an airy release that heralds the second half of Niemandsland. .

What Niemandsland describes is an oppression of thought that slowly seeps away. Thoughts that had become so all encompassing they narrowed outlook and horizons. Once passing along along, the relief puts in perspective how much it narrowed emotions. A stressful period comes with the knowledge of having managed and affords a slightly calmer outlook.

I often create in order to work through creative struggles, entwined with whatever life presents. It is not an attempt to present a literal map to my inner world but perhaps this recording, at the very least, presents an interesting journey, maybe even one that resonates.


Watch on You Tube
Storm
Listen on
Niemandsland



I released Niemandsland 20 years ago on CD and never attempted to remaster or release it. I didn't have the right tools to clean up the many drones, layers of noise and details hidden sometimes smudged in the background. It was originally created and mastered on headphones which coloured the process and as a result, it didn't translate well to other mediums of listening.

All synth recordings were made using a Korg X5D, an entry synthesizer that I know inside out. It appears on all of my albums, on most exclusively so. The way I create my music is to record from sources (ie. the Korg synth, nature etc.) and then manipulate the result in a DAW until it’s hard to hear where music stops and sound design begins.

On Niemandsland the line between fieldrecording and synthesizer is blurred to an extend the entire album feels a little blurry, smeared, muffled and with resonant drones that can sometimes be soothing or oppressive and harsh sounding. It works in it's own right, of course and was well reviewed:

“… Florianz's attention to detail and ability to create intense swathes of emotive ambience is hard to beat …” – Paul Lloyd for Igloomag.com

Thank you Paul - Nevertheless, the release mostly sounded best on my specific headphones and that did not translate fully to other listening environments, requiring a lot of power and big speakers to sound good at a lower volume. An above average listening environment to reveal the nuances buried beneath the surface of drones and noise

For the remaster I've broken the original release up into "scenes" every time the sound moves to a new place or presents a significant tonal shift I change my approach for re-mastering. In the 60 minute runtime, on average, each section is about 30 to 90 seconds long.

In the embedded video I show the mastering tools used for one such "scene". I am especially pleased with DSEQ3 (paid for from sales on Bandcamp, thank you!) for helping me temper harshness and resonant drones without loosing the essence of the original. Ozone’s tools also worked wonders in dynamically bringing out the detail and clarity.

So in the end it's perhaps a little more than a remaster and perhaps a bit of a reimagination. Therfor the download of Niemandsland on bandcamp also included the original 2006 release so that the original version is preserved also. Visit: https://matthewflorianz.bandcamp.com/album/niemandsland for comparison, adjusting the volume of the original is required as it is much quieter.


Watch on You Tube
Remastering a twenty year old ambient release ...
Listen on Bandcamp
Niemandsland


Niemandsland (2006) has not been available since it was released on H/S CD in 2006. A new master has been prepared for Bandcamp and includes the original 2006 release as a bonus download (requires purchase). The release is discounted during pre-order.

Review quotes:

"... too epic to be merely ambient, subtly mutates and evolves into a massive cloud of tuned air mixed with chord-rush to occupy a space not far removed from Roach's Magnificent Void ..." - i/o by Alan Lockett

"... evoke imagery of gray, cold and barren spaces. This is not dark ambience! It is totally ambivalent. It seeks neither to soothe nor to provoke. Rather, it seeks to isolate and abandon..." - Jim Brenholts

"... doggedly minimalistic, monochrome, existing in a state of near stasis, almost sacral. Far from intimate, it is rather desolate, seeming to take in huge stretches of featureless geography at close range..." - sonumu by stephen fruitman


Listen on Bandcamp
Niemandsland


as the crow flies

The black and white photography of this video plays back at a slow 24 frames per second. It plays beautifully with the ambient soundscape. Perhaps the way it flickers into perception evokes a remnant of growing up watching film in light projected cinema.It casts a spell when watching.
I’ve recorded the music in this video with a Korg Prologue and Arturia Minibrute. Modern day analogue synths. Fitting in a way.


Watch on You Tube
As the crow flies


among purgatory pillars

A huge cavernous ritual space.
Pillars extend above the sands where once a river flowed.
A lonely vessel sweeps the current of ever shifting dunes and drones.
The calling of a horn towers above the landscape, echoing and reverberating.


Watch on You Tube
Among Purgatory Pillars
Listen on Bandcamp
A River Buried In Sand


a river buried in sand

A River Buried in Sand - Blurs the line between music and sound design

Hello, I’m Matthew Florianz also known as Liquid Morphine. I'm an ambient music producer, game audio professional and have taken inspiration from both to create the immersive, dynamic and layered soundscapes for this project.

The opening track starts with a peaceful field recording before erupting into a massive sub-bass sound. It is a thunderous start for an ambient project: Dynamic, intense and setting the tone for the second half, which mellows into a serene space. The final track signifies a new state of being, emerged from the descent before.

This feeling of descending (philosophical, emotional and physical) has been a fascination while creating A River Buried in Sand. I’ve thought of it as a soundtrack for an exploration into the underworld, an ambience for an imaginary game and also as a reflection on the five stages of grief.

The enveloping soundscapes and the images brought about are achieved through carefully chosen recording techniques that blend field recordings, analogue synthesizers, sound design and post-processing effects. This release is mastered for headphones and best enjoyed in a comfortable position, like lying down. For me, it can induce a feeling of falling, while simultaneously lying still.

In sharing some of my inspirations and experiences, I hope that you might find your own.
Available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms from August 31st 2023.


Listen on Bandcamp
A River Buried in Sand


a beautiful brutal betrayal

A Beautiful Brutal Betrayal has been sitting on my hard drive since 2016. It was an album that never escaped Wasteland Signals in tone and perhaps because of that, was never finished beyond an initial outline and sketch while I moved onto recording onontgonnen instead.

Recently, a sequence accompanied these moody images of misty streetlights:
Video - You Tube

When re-acquainted with the source material, rearranged and re-imagined, a recording for release was hiding in the material all along!

I’ve shared one track which showcases the nosier aspects, the mastering and also how beauty springs from the distortions. As the album progresses beyond that moment, it will become more introspective and perhaps a little less angry.

If you appreciate music to be “physical” – bonus materials include full colour artwork to be printed and applied onto a CD-R backup of the uncompressed download.


Bandcamp Release page
A Beautiful Brutal Betrayal

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