Eyal Hareuveni at Salt Peanuts:
Koole explores the sonic potential of this vintage guitar as a string sound generator and improvises-investigates methodically its raw, primitive and brutal sound and its resonant qualities or as an instrument that corresponds with worldly and otherworldly exotic string instruments. There are no familiar narratives or predictable chord changes. oê [39:08] is released as a limited edition 12’’ vinyl, and both sides begin with urgent, fractured themes, followed by pieces that suggest more dense and complex textures, almost mechanical ones on the second side of the album.
https://salt-peanuts.eu/record/matthias-koole/
Four years after [34:46], a solo guitar album that looked back on my work with the electric guitar, I am releasing oê [39:08], an album that aims to open up new paths.
It is an album recorded on a steel string guitar, a very old, tiny parlor guitar that I acquired shortly before the recording. The recording was part of the process of getting to know this instrument, which has since become a dear part of my instrumentation.
The titles are references or deferences to influences in the form of persons, entities or objects. On this album, I use no electronics at all, only a few objects that are usually not very unusual for guitar playing and music making, such as a capo, spider capo, cello bow or drumstick. Perhaps the most unusual object is a balloon. My intention with this album is not to change or transform the sound of the guitar, but to meet its material potential.
Side A consists of 5 tracks, on side B I start from a similar point as on side A, but take it in a different direction.
No cuts or overdubs.
The album was produced by Labor Neunzehn and is part of our residency in the context of the Weltoffenes Berlin program of the Berlin Senate.
Cover design: Valentina Besegher
Recording: Matthias Koole
Mix: Emygdio Costa
Mastering: Paulo Dantas
Released on OEM Records on October 02, 2023
Frans de Waard in Vital Weekly:
The guitar remains the guitar, but Koole takes a radical approach to his playing. No chords, no strumming, just hard plucking and rattling along the strings, with the occasional objects playing a role but never resulting in something that renders the guitar unrecognisable. Like the CD by Meirino/Noetinger, reviewed elsewhere, Koole has a somewhat brutalist method, without the electronics and hard cuts, but with the music being so loud/close to the microphone, it becomes alive and a monster it is. The second side contains some quieter moments, but it doesn't put you to sleep, far from it. Quite a blast these nearly forty minutes of guitar trashing.
https://www.vitalweekly.net/1408.html
It is an album recorded on a steel string guitar, a very old, tiny parlor guitar that I acquired shortly before the recording. The recording was part of the process of getting to know this instrument, which has since become a dear part of my instrumentation.
The titles are references or deferences to influences in the form of persons, entities or objects. On this album, I use no electronics at all, only a few objects that are usually not very unusual for guitar playing and music making, such as a capo, spider capo, cello bow or drumstick. Perhaps the most unusual object is a balloon. My intention with this album is not to change or transform the sound of the guitar, but to meet its material potential.
Side A consists of 5 tracks, on side B I start from a similar point as on side A, but take it in a different direction.
No cuts or overdubs.
The album was produced by Labor Neunzehn and is part of our residency in the context of the Weltoffenes Berlin program of the Berlin Senate.
Cover design: Valentina Besegher
Recording: Matthias Koole
Mix: Emygdio Costa
Mastering: Paulo Dantas
Released on OEM Records on October 02, 2023
Frans de Waard in Vital Weekly:
The guitar remains the guitar, but Koole takes a radical approach to his playing. No chords, no strumming, just hard plucking and rattling along the strings, with the occasional objects playing a role but never resulting in something that renders the guitar unrecognisable. Like the CD by Meirino/Noetinger, reviewed elsewhere, Koole has a somewhat brutalist method, without the electronics and hard cuts, but with the music being so loud/close to the microphone, it becomes alive and a monster it is. The second side contains some quieter moments, but it doesn't put you to sleep, far from it. Quite a blast these nearly forty minutes of guitar trashing.
https://www.vitalweekly.net/1408.html