Matt Elliott

NEWS

BIO

We left Matt Elliott after a visionary ‘Farewell To All We Know’, not to say a harbinger of the collapsological crisis that was COVID 19. What can be built when everything is down, when everything has crumbled, ideals and beliefs, a sense of commonality and community? All that remains is to surpass oneself again and again, to dig again and again into the same obsessions, to tame them, to domesticate them. This ninth album by Matt Elliott under his own name, if we leave aside his more electronic side, Third Eye Foundation, is something of an evidence. There is in the British artist a creative expansion force that makes each record, especially since the beginning of his collaboration with the producer and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin, a capacity to always surpass himself, to always surprise us through combinations that we thought we knew but that, each time, are new.

Of course, one would like to classify Matt Elliott in one genre or another, but more than a school or a style, the Englishman is finally more in line with a heritage, a tradition rather, that of the complaint, of the song of lamentation which runs from continent to continent, from country to country. From Greek rebetic songs to Portuguese Fado, Delta Blues, Balkan fanfares, Yiddish melancholy or Cape Verdean Saudade, you can hear it all in Matt Elliott’s music, the song of an uprooted person, a stateless person, a being outside the world. 

Where despair could be paroxysmal on ‘The Broken Man’ (2011), it now dissolves into a delicacy like a trompe l’oeil. It leaves more room for silence, which is another form of expression of what could be summed up as sensitivity in its noblest form. To speak of oneself while forgetting oneself, to evoke oneself in what one is profoundly as if to better annihilate one’s presence. 

Matt Elliott comes to add a new element to his science of lamentation with the appearance of the saxophone used as you have never heard it. Forget John Coltrane, here it is not a question of virtuosity but more simply and more accurately of a contribution to the narrative of these ample songs, with a meticulous and patient construction. ‘The End Of Days’, in the opening, all in appeasement, in languor raises something remarkable in the Matt Elliott of 2022, it is this will to play with the Manichaeism in these songs neither only grey, nor totally black. 

Matt Elliott sings this infinitely small space, this in-between between intense joy and absolute sorrow, this border between the unspeakable and the shared.  Hence this feeling of nervousness, of urgency that runs through each of these compositions. January’s Song reminds us how much Matt Elliott builds each of his records as a sequence of musical movements, there is something almost baroque in this second title, something of fin de siècle, something not so far from the formulas of a Santiago De Murcia. And then there are these titles that say it all like this Song Of Consolation or Healing A Wound Will Often Begin With A Bruise, maybe one of the most beautiful tracks of his discography. With him, we feel more and more this orchestral temptation, as if he was trying to reconcile his alias Third Eye Foundation to what he achieved in his solo career. Listening to Matt Elliott’s records is not only listening to an artist who would have abandoned the electronic dimension in his work. It is much more than that, it is to see an artist who will leave a different imprint, Flowers For Bea is undoubtedly the most beautiful example. A bit like Dominique A who took years to take on the role of singer, Matt Elliott has chosen not to hide his voice behind production tricks. His voice has never been so beautiful, so strong, so full of nuances as on Unresolved. There is a kind of letting go in both his lyrics and his singing that is something new in the musician’s work. 

There is in Matt Elliott this force of expansion, this capacity to remove the dross, the parasites which disturb to keep only the essential, the emotion that is neither raw nor strong, no, the real emotion.

Translation by Greg Bod

LINE-UP

solo:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone

duo:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone
Anne Elisabeth de Cologne: double bass

trio:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone
Anne Elisabeth de Cologne: double bass
Barbara Dang: piano

With the support of the Regional direction of cultural affairs of the Great East

LINKS

PRESS

  • Aural aggravation

    “Farewell To All We Know is a lugubrious and at times slow to the point of dragging effort, but one feels that’s the intention: this is not a pop album. Or a rock album. Farewell To All We Know is bleak and harrowing, but also charming and enjoyable in a dark, dark, dark folksy way.”

CONTACT

Booking : Mélanie Vitry
Promo : Jean-Philippe Béraud

TAGS

#chanson
#darkfolk
#iberian
  • 'Flowers For Bea' (video by Virgil Pink, 2023)
  • 'Unresolved' (video by Virgil Pink, 2023)
  • 'January's Song' (audio) ℗ Ici, d'ailleurs 2023
  • 'A long way from home'

  • MATT ELLIOTT – The Day After That from TACHYONS+ on Vimeo.

    'The Day After That' (clip by Tachyons+, 2020)
  • 'The Day After That' (audio) ℗ Ici, d'ailleurs 2020
  • 'Wings & Crown' (directed by Super 5)
  • 'The Allegory of the Cave' by Virgil Pink (2016)
  • 'Prepare for Disappointment' (directed by Virgil Pink, 2014)
  • ‘Bang Bang’ (Sonny Bonno and Cher cover), live at Médiathèque Tomi Ungerer 2014
  • 'Dust Flesh and Bones' (Evilupus, 2013)
  • 'The Kursk'
  • 'Dust, Flesh and Bone' (live in Athens 2011)
  • "Something about Ghosts", Sandrine Romet-Lemonne, 2009
  • Matt Elliott - The right to cry

DISCOGRAPHIE

  • Drinking Songs live 20 years on

    Ici d'Ailleurs2024
    LP / CD / Digital

  • The End Of Days

    Ici d'ailleurs2023
    LP / CD / Digital
  • Farewell to all we know

    Farewell to all we know

    Ici d'Ailleurs2020
    CD / LP / DL

  • The Calm Before

    Ici d'Ailleurs2016
    CD / LP / digital

  • The Mess We Made (reissue)

    Ici d'Ailleurs2013
    Double LP

  • Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart

    Ici d'Ailleurs2013
    CD, LP, Digital

  • The Broken Man

    Ici d'Ailleurs2011
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Howling Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2008
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Failing Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2006
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Drinking Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2005
    CD / LP / Digital

Past shows

Click on "date", "city" or "venue" to change the list display
  • DateCountryCityVenuewith 
  • 09/28/2024FranceStrasbourg (67)Craft Beer Festival (Espace Marcel Marceau)infos event
  • 08/30/2024FranceNancy (54)Amours d'été (orga. L'Autre Canal)en duo avec Anne-Elisabeth de Cologne // Barouf!infos event
  • 04/23/2024FrancePuteaux (92)Le Palais de la cultureen duo avec Anne-Elisabeth de Cologneinfos event
  • 04/12/2024FranceCharleville-Mézières (08)Chez Josette event
  • 04/10/2024FranceRennes (35) Les Champs Libres - Auditoriuminfos event
  • 03/23/2024FranceSaint-Jean-de-Vedas (34)The Secret Place TAF (orga. TOUT A FOND & THE BIRTHDAY PARTY MTP#3 )Rorscharch event
  • 03/22/2024FranceLautrec (81)Café Plùminfos event
  • 03/21/2024FranceSégur-le-Château (19)La Ruelle event
  • 02/17/2024FranceChalon-sur-Saône (71)LaPénicheen duo + Be Hydeinfos event
  • 11/26/2023FranceMarseille (13)Le Molotov infos event
  • 11/25/2023FranceLa Romieu (32) On va vers le beauinfos event
  • 11/24/2023FranceAgen (47)Le Florida en duoinfos event
  • 11/18/2023FranceParis (75)Concert Secretinfos
  • 11/17/2023FranceFougères (35)Le Coquelicotinfos event
  • 11/16/2023FranceBrest (29)Festival Invisible, Passerelle Centre d'art contemporainJUNG & Iinfos event
  • 10/24/2023PlogneSosnowiec (PL)Zagłębiowska Mediatekainfos event
  • 10/21/2023FranceAngoulême (16)L'Alpha - médiathèque de GrandAngoulême (COMPLET)infos event
  • 10/20/2023FranceTalence (33)L’Inconnueinfos event
  • 10/19/2023FranceToulouse (31)Le MetronumMorjane Ténéréinfos event
  • 10/18/2023FranceLille (59)La Bulle café (orga. Ah bon ?)Peter Kernelinfos event
  • 10/15/2023FranceGrenoble (38)Le CielRegular Girlinfos event
  • 10/14/2023FranceParis (75)Café Cometsinfos event
  • 10/13/2023FranceParis (75)L'Archipel (COMPLET)infos event
  • 10/12/2023FranceMayenne (53)Pampa! - Le Rendez-vous en duoinfos event
  • 09/23/2023FranceCaen (14)PALMA Festival, Chapelle de la Sainte Familleen duoinfos event
  • 08/12/2023FranceArras-en-Lavedan (65)infos
  • 05/15/2023FranceParis (75)Release Party - Le Café de la danse (COMPLET)Wysteriainfos event
  • 05/13/2023FranceStrasbourg (67)La Laiterie Indie Club FestivalJJH Potter + Julie Doironinfos event
  • 05/03/2023FranceSaint Sulpice (CH)Hyper Ouest festival, Eglise de Saint Sulpice (COMPLET)infos event
  • 04/04/2023FranceTarbes (65)Celtic Pub event
  • 03/04/2023FranceLe Mans (72)INDÉ*RAMA #2 / Le Barouf (orga. Superforma) infos event
  • 11/26/2022FranceRennes (35)L'Ubu, Festival TNB - After Ubu #2, concert et DJ setinfos event
  • 11/25/2022FranceSaint-Nazaire (44) Sous les palmiers, la plage event
  • 11/24/2022FranceNantes (44)Festival Culture Bar-Bars, Duchesseinfos event
  • 11/20/2022FranceDunkerque (59)Les Dimanches des arts urbains, Halle aux Sucres infos event
  • 11/05/2022FranceMetz (57)Eglise St-Maximin
  • 10/09/2022FranceArthez-de-Béarn (64)Le Pingouin Alternatif event
  • 10/08/2022FranceMontpellier (34)Les Internationales de la guitare, la Panacéeinfos event
  • 07/15/2022FranceNancy (54)Guinguette du Monde Libre event
  • 05/21/2022FranceBelfort (90)SuperChevreuil, David Demange
  • 03/12/2022FranceVillerupt (54)L'archeDombrance, Leen, Ficusinfos event
  • 02/05/2022FranceLa Réole (33)La Petite Populaire event
  • 02/04/2022FranceBillom (63)Le Café du Quaiinfos
  • 02/03/2022FranceChalon-sur-Saône (71)LaPénicheinfos
  • 12/02/2021FranceSaint-Florent le Vieil (49)Auditorium Julien Gracq (orga. Scène de Pays)Yoann Barbereau & Karsten Hochapfelinfos event
  • 12/01/2021FranceNantes (44)La Duchesse event
  • 11/17/2021FranceMetz (57)Les TrinitairesJ.E. Sundeinfos event
  • 10/28/2021FranceBourges (18)Le NadirHintinfos event
  • 10/27/2021FranceTroyes (10)The Message event
  • 09/25/2021FranceWolfskirchen (67) La Grange Nue (orga. Arborescence)infos event
  • 09/24/2021FranceDijon (21)Le Consortium, Selected by Florent (orga. Sabotage)infos event
  • 09/23/2021FranceAnnecy (74)Château de Menthon (orga. le Brise Glace)infos event
  • 09/15/2021FranceParis (75)Le Café de la DanseMelaine Dalibertinfos event
  • 04/29/2021FranceLyon (69)Opéra Underground (ANNULÉ)infos
  • 04/22/2021FranceValence (26)Théâtre de la Ville (avec le Mistral Palace) (ANNULÉ)infos event
  • 03/03/2021FranceNancy (54)L'Autre Canal (ANNULÉ) event
  • 02/19/2021FranceDunkerque (59)Festival We Will Folk You #10, Les 4 Écluses (ANNULÉ)Sol Hess event
  • 02/18/2021FranceParis (75)Café de la Danse (ANNULÉ) event
  • 12/11/2020BelgiqueCharleroiLe Vecteur (ANNULÉ) event
  • 12/10/2020BelgiqueBruxellesLe Palace (ANNULÉ)infos
  • 11/27/2020FranceBlois (41)Le Chato'do (ANNULÉ)Jawharinfos event
  • 11/13/2020FranceValence (26)Théâtre de la ville (ANNULÉ)infos event
  • 10/18/2020FranceStrasbourg (67)Le MolodoïRoss Heseltoninfos event
  • 10/17/2020FranceGrenoble (38)La BobineLoup Ubertoinfos event
  • 10/16/2020FranceAvignon (84)Discrète Music event
  • 10/15/2020FranceToulouse (31)Le Metronuminfos event
  • 10/10/2020FranceBavans (25)Fort du Mont Bartinfos event
  • 10/09/2020FranceAlençon (61)La Lucioleinfos event
  • 10/08/2020FranceLille (59)L'Aéronefinfos event
  • 09/19/2020FranceOrléans (45)Festival Hop Pop Hop, salle de l'InstitutLucie Antunesinfos event
  • 08/26/2020FranceBelfort (90)Les Mercredis du Château, La Citadelle de Belfortinfos event
  • 05/15/2020FranceLilleL'Aéronef (ANNULÉ)Scout Niblettinfos event
  • 03/19/2020BelgiqueBruxellesLe Palace (ANNULÉ)infos event
  • 11/16/2019FranceBourg-lès-Valence (26)Médiathèque la Passerelleinfos event
  • 11/15/2019FranceGigors-Et-Lozeron (26)Gigors Electricinfos event
  • 08/09/2019SuisseGenève (CH)Festival les Aubes Musicales
  • 06/08/2019FranceNancyFestival StéréolitheRamona Cordova, Will Guthrieinfos event
  • 05/11/2019FranceGérardmerMaison de la Culture et des Loisirsinfos
  • 05/10/2019FranceVendenheim (67)MédiathèqueMerve Salgar & Ross Heseltoninfos event
  • 02/21/2019FranceFeyzin (69)L'épicerie Moderneinfos event
  • 11/09/2017FranceParisFestival Monte le Son, Bibliothèque Musicale de Parisinfos event
  • 11/08/2017BelgiqueCharleroiPoint CultureJesus is my son, Everyone is Guiltyinfos event
  • 11/07/2017FranceLilleL'Antre 210000 Russosinfos event
  • 10/05/2017ItalieCagliariKarel Music Expoinfos
  • 07/21/2017FranceNancyLa MachineOVPDD, Etienne C event
  • 06/25/2017FranceParisFestival BD6Né, Médiathèque Marguerite Durasinfos event
  • 05/24/2017FranceColmarLe Grilleninfos event
  • 05/19/2017FranceRivières (Tarn)Piscine d'Aiguelèze event
  • 02/10/2017SuisseVernier - GenèveFestival Antigel, Le Templeinfos event
  • 02/09/2017FranceLyonLe Bal des Fringantsinfos
  • 02/08/2017FranceAurillacFestival Hibernarockinfos event
  • 02/05/2017FranceBouguenais les Couêts (44)Chez l'habitant
  • 02/04/2017FranceTrignac (44)Festival Folk en Scènes, Centre Culturel Lucie AubracBaptiste W. Hamoninfos event
  • 02/03/2017FranceBord de Loire, proche NantesLa DéhaleMy Name is Nobody event
  • 01/21/2017FranceMontpellierLe Black Sheep event
  • 01/20/2017FranceMarseilleL'Eolienne event
  • 01/19/2017FranceToulonHôtel des Artsinfos
  • 01/13/2017FranceArgenteuilLa Cave DimièreL'Etrangleuseinfos event
  • 12/08/2016FranceNantesMadame Rêve event
  • 10/26/2016FranceDijonFestival Novosonic, l'Atheneuminfos
  • 10/13/2016FranceMontpellierLes Internationales de la Guitare, The Black Sheepinfos
  • 10/12/2016FranceParisPetit BainLunainfos event
  • 10/11/2016FranceCaenMaison de l'Etudiant event
  • 09/30/2016FranceDunkerqueFestival We Will Folk You, 4 Eclusesinfos event
  • 09/02/2016FranceRivières (81)(ANNULE) Festival Baignade Interdite, Piscine d'AiguelèzeSourdure, Vegan Dallas, Gwyn Wurst, Tomagainfos event
  • 06/08/2016FranceMetzLes TrinitairesTortoiseinfos event
  • 05/07/2016FranceSarregueminesLe Terminusinfos
  • 04/28/2016FranceVilleurbanne/LyonLe TransbordeurMichel Cloup Duoinfos event
  • 04/16/2016SuisseMôtiers (Ch)Les MascaronsAdvaïta event
  • 03/27/2016FranceParisLe Café de la DanseVictor Herreroinfos event
  • 03/26/2016FranceTincques (62)L'Auréole Béthencourt event
  • 03/25/2016Grande-BretagneLondon (Uk)The Laughing BellRhosyninfos event
  • 03/24/2016BelgiqueBruxelles (Be)Centre Culturel Le BrassStranded Horseinfos event
  • 03/23/2016FranceNancyMédiathèque
  • 03/17/2016FranceStrasbourgStimultaniainfos event
  • 03/09/2016SuisseLausanne (Ch)Le Romandie Rock ClubStranded Horse & Boubacar Cissokhoinfos event
  • 03/08/2016FranceMarseilleData event
  • 03/01/2016FrancePauLa Ferronnerie event
  • 02/29/2016FranceClermont-FerrandLe 101Enfant sauvage + Pray for the Soul of Francis Charles & Sean B. Goldringinfos event
  • 02/05/2016FranceParisFestival Au Fil des Voix, L'AlhambraGabby Young & Other Animalsinfos event
  • 11/11/2015ItalieCatania (It)Etcetera Festival, Palazzo Biscari, Salone delle FesteJosh T. Pearsoninfos
  • 10/16/2015FranceLa Roche-sur-YonFestival International du Film, Fuzz'Yoninfos
  • 09/12/2015FranceSaint-Lô (50)Pôle Hippique, Haras Nationalinfos
  • 07/06/2015FrancePibrac (31)Festival des Intimités, Cinéma Utopia TournefeuilleMichel Cloup event
  • 05/30/2015FranceCherbourgLe Point du Jourinfos event
  • 05/16/2015FranceDiedendorf (67)Atelier François Génotinfos event
  • 05/02/2015FranceWroclaw (Pl)Asymmetry Festival 2015, Klub Firlejinfos
  • 01/16/2015FranceArgenteuil (95)La Cave DimièreJim Rosemberginfos
  • 11/13/2014Grande-BretagneLondon (UK)Cafe OtoPeter Walkerinfos event
  • 11/08/2014Grande-BretagneOxford (UK)Audioscope Festival, The Jericho TavernSilver Apples, The Telescopes...infos event
  • 11/07/2014Grande-BretagneCardiff (UK)Clwb Ifor BachRatatosk, Rokainfos event
  • 11/05/2014Grande-BretagneBristol (UK)Exchangeinfos event
  • 09/20/2014FranceRuoms (07)Festival Heart of Glass, Heart of Gold Taulard, 2 Boules Vanille, Golden Teacher, Hookworms, Jenny Wilson, La Femme, Omar Souleyman, Public Service Boadcasting, Moodoidinfos event
  • 08/30/2014FranceMarseilleFestival des ArtGoNotes, Théâtre Les Argonautes event
  • 08/29/2014FranceBuis les BaronniesGalerie Pierre & Renéeinfos
  • 08/08/2014AllemagneFriedrichshafenKulturuferinfos
  • 07/13/2014FranceCulles-les-Roches (71)Festival Festicullesinfos event
  • 05/06/2014FranceBoucau (64)La Maisoninfos event
  • 04/20/2014FranceRoubaixLa Cave aux PoètesVsinfos event
  • 03/20/2014FranceReimsPalais de Tau, Festival Equinoxeinfos event
  • 03/19/2014FranceLyonMarché Gareinfos event
  • 03/18/2014FranceMulhouseNoumatrouffinfos event
  • 03/12/2014FranceParisPoint ÉphémèrePillars & Tonguesinfos event
  • 02/15/2014FranceSaint-LôLe Normandyinfos
  • 02/14/2014FranceLorientLe ManègeBarbarossainfos event
  • 02/08/2014FranceToulouseLa DynamoAlone With Everybodyinfos event
  • 02/07/2014FranceLa RochelleLa SirèneLe Prince Miiaouinfos event
  • 02/06/2014FranceBordeauxI.BoatFauneinfos event
  • 02/05/2014FrancePoitiersConfort ModerneMichel Cloup duoinfos event
  • 12/15/2013FranceRennesL'AntipodeRamona Cordovainfos event
  • 12/01/2013Pays-BasUtrecht (NL)Le Guess Whoinfos event
  • 11/29/2013FranceVendenheimMédiathéque Tomi Ungererinfos event
  • 11/21/2013FranceParisLe Café De La DanseEloïse Decazes et Eric Chenauxinfos event
  • 11/16/2013FranceNamur (be) Le Belvédère infos event
  • 11/15/2013FranceAmiens La Briqueterieinfos event
  • 11/14/2013BelgiqueBruxelles (be) Le Botanique infos event
  • 11/10/2013ItaliePadova (It)Grind House - Club ARCI event
  • 11/09/2013ItalieBologna (It)Freakout event
  • 11/08/2013SuisseDelémont (ch)SASSean Noonan A Gambler's Handinfos event
  • 11/06/2013FranceMetzTrinitaires - Festival 'Musiques Volantes' Orval Carlos Sibeliusinfos event
  • 10/30/2013FranceNancyHome Sweet Home Session #11 (en appartement)infos event
  • 05/11/2013FranceBrestConcert en appartement
  • 05/10/2013FranceBrestLa CarèneMendelsoninfos event
  • 04/27/2013CréteilMaison des Artsdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/26/2013CréteilMaison des Artsdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/25/2013CréteilMaison des Artsdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/24/2013CréteilMaison des ArtsDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/18/2013FranceLorientThéatre de LorientDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/17/2013LorientThéatre de LorientDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/13/2013NiceThéatre Nationaldans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos
  • 04/12/2013NiceThéatre NationalDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/11/2013NiceThéatre National Dans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/06/2013St Quentin en YvelinesThéatre de St Quentin en YvelinesDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/05/2013St Quentin en YvelinesThéatre de St Quentin en YvelinesDans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzycielinfos
  • 04/04/2013St Quentin en YvelinesThéatre de St Quentin en Yvelinesdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos
  • 03/21/2013FranceReimsLa Comédie de Reimsdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos event
  • 03/20/2013FranceReimsLa Comédie de Reimsdans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos event
  • 03/14/2013FranceVireLe Préau (Centre dramatique Régional) dans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos event
  • 03/09/2013FranceValenciennesLe Phénix (Scène nationale)infos event
  • 03/08/2013FranceValenciennesLe Phénix (Scène nationale)dans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos event
  • 03/07/2013FranceValenciennesLe Phénix (Scène nationale) dans le cadre du spectacle 'La Mouette' de Tchekhov, musique de Matt Elliott, mise en scène de Arthur Nauzyciel infos event
  • 02/20/2013FranceParisEglise St EustacheNarrow Terence event
  • 'Flowers For Bea' (video by Virgil Pink, 2023)
  • 'Unresolved' (video by Virgil Pink, 2023)
  • 'January's Song' (audio) ℗ Ici, d'ailleurs 2023
  • 'A long way from home'

  • MATT ELLIOTT – The Day After That from TACHYONS+ on Vimeo.

    'The Day After That' (clip by Tachyons+, 2020)
  • 'The Day After That' (audio) ℗ Ici, d'ailleurs 2020
  • 'Wings & Crown' (directed by Super 5)
  • 'The Allegory of the Cave' by Virgil Pink (2016)
  • 'Prepare for Disappointment' (directed by Virgil Pink, 2014)
  • ‘Bang Bang’ (Sonny Bonno and Cher cover), live at Médiathèque Tomi Ungerer 2014
  • 'Dust Flesh and Bones' (Evilupus, 2013)
  • 'The Kursk'
  • 'Dust, Flesh and Bone' (live in Athens 2011)
  • "Something about Ghosts", Sandrine Romet-Lemonne, 2009
  • Matt Elliott - The right to cry

NEWS

BIO

We left Matt Elliott after a visionary ‘Farewell To All We Know’, not to say a harbinger of the collapsological crisis that was COVID 19. What can be built when everything is down, when everything has crumbled, ideals and beliefs, a sense of commonality and community? All that remains is to surpass oneself again and again, to dig again and again into the same obsessions, to tame them, to domesticate them. This ninth album by Matt Elliott under his own name, if we leave aside his more electronic side, Third Eye Foundation, is something of an evidence. There is in the British artist a creative expansion force that makes each record, especially since the beginning of his collaboration with the producer and multi-instrumentalist David Chalmin, a capacity to always surpass himself, to always surprise us through combinations that we thought we knew but that, each time, are new.

Of course, one would like to classify Matt Elliott in one genre or another, but more than a school or a style, the Englishman is finally more in line with a heritage, a tradition rather, that of the complaint, of the song of lamentation which runs from continent to continent, from country to country. From Greek rebetic songs to Portuguese Fado, Delta Blues, Balkan fanfares, Yiddish melancholy or Cape Verdean Saudade, you can hear it all in Matt Elliott’s music, the song of an uprooted person, a stateless person, a being outside the world. 

Where despair could be paroxysmal on ‘The Broken Man’ (2011), it now dissolves into a delicacy like a trompe l’oeil. It leaves more room for silence, which is another form of expression of what could be summed up as sensitivity in its noblest form. To speak of oneself while forgetting oneself, to evoke oneself in what one is profoundly as if to better annihilate one’s presence. 

Matt Elliott comes to add a new element to his science of lamentation with the appearance of the saxophone used as you have never heard it. Forget John Coltrane, here it is not a question of virtuosity but more simply and more accurately of a contribution to the narrative of these ample songs, with a meticulous and patient construction. ‘The End Of Days’, in the opening, all in appeasement, in languor raises something remarkable in the Matt Elliott of 2022, it is this will to play with the Manichaeism in these songs neither only grey, nor totally black. 

Matt Elliott sings this infinitely small space, this in-between between intense joy and absolute sorrow, this border between the unspeakable and the shared.  Hence this feeling of nervousness, of urgency that runs through each of these compositions. January’s Song reminds us how much Matt Elliott builds each of his records as a sequence of musical movements, there is something almost baroque in this second title, something of fin de siècle, something not so far from the formulas of a Santiago De Murcia. And then there are these titles that say it all like this Song Of Consolation or Healing A Wound Will Often Begin With A Bruise, maybe one of the most beautiful tracks of his discography. With him, we feel more and more this orchestral temptation, as if he was trying to reconcile his alias Third Eye Foundation to what he achieved in his solo career. Listening to Matt Elliott’s records is not only listening to an artist who would have abandoned the electronic dimension in his work. It is much more than that, it is to see an artist who will leave a different imprint, Flowers For Bea is undoubtedly the most beautiful example. A bit like Dominique A who took years to take on the role of singer, Matt Elliott has chosen not to hide his voice behind production tricks. His voice has never been so beautiful, so strong, so full of nuances as on Unresolved. There is a kind of letting go in both his lyrics and his singing that is something new in the musician’s work. 

There is in Matt Elliott this force of expansion, this capacity to remove the dross, the parasites which disturb to keep only the essential, the emotion that is neither raw nor strong, no, the real emotion.

Translation by Greg Bod

LINE-UP

solo:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone

duo:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone
Anne Elisabeth de Cologne: double bass

trio:
Matt Elliott: voice, guitar, saxophone
Anne Elisabeth de Cologne: double bass
Barbara Dang: piano

With the support of the Regional direction of cultural affairs of the Great East

LINKS

PRESS

  • Aural aggravation

    “Farewell To All We Know is a lugubrious and at times slow to the point of dragging effort, but one feels that’s the intention: this is not a pop album. Or a rock album. Farewell To All We Know is bleak and harrowing, but also charming and enjoyable in a dark, dark, dark folksy way.”

DISCOGRAPHIE

  • Drinking Songs live 20 years on

    Ici d'Ailleurs2024
    LP / CD / Digital

  • The End Of Days

    Ici d'ailleurs2023
    LP / CD / Digital
  • Farewell to all we know

    Farewell to all we know

    Ici d'Ailleurs2020
    CD / LP / DL

  • The Calm Before

    Ici d'Ailleurs2016
    CD / LP / digital

  • The Mess We Made (reissue)

    Ici d'Ailleurs2013
    Double LP

  • Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart

    Ici d'Ailleurs2013
    CD, LP, Digital

  • The Broken Man

    Ici d'Ailleurs2011
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Howling Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2008
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Failing Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2006
    CD / LP / Digital

  • Drinking Songs

    Ici d'Ailleurs2005
    CD / LP / Digital

CONTACT

Booking : Mélanie Vitry
Promo : Jean-Philippe Béraud

TAGS

#chanson
#darkfolk
#iberian