MATTHEW BURTNER
COMPOSER / SOUND ARTIST / ECOACOUSTICS
Matthew Burtner is an IDEA and EMMY Award-winning composer, sound artist and ecoacoustician whose work explores embodiment, temporality and noise. Born and raised in Alaska, he studied music during a time of rapid global warming in the north, and developed ecoacoustic music as a way to embed environmental change into sound art. His new album "Icefield" is out now.
“As a form of cultural intervention, music keeps pressure on the public imagination to feel connected emotionally to the world we inhabit, to imagine new forms of reality through expressive sonic dynamics, and to share those potential realities with others together in a community of aesthetics through listening.”
- Matthew Burtner
Burtner’s compositions give the listener a sense of a magnificent journey or exploration. There are unlimited possibilities and creativity is at the fingertips of the performers. Each and every performance of his work is a unique world of perspectives that can be shared and equally valued.”
Inside UWGB, by Derek Sklenar
“Forget Debussy and Monet. Burtner’s Snowprints achieves impressionism though different means. Conceived for flute, cello, piano and electronics, the piece literally and figuratively incorporates “white noise,” the sounds of snow swooshing and crunching and swirling -- evocative music. There is something of the Wallace Stevens jar-placed-in- the-wilderness effect going on here: the instruments gain meaning from the natural sounds and vice versa.”
San Diego Arts, by David Gregson
It was earth-shattering... literally. The entire space of Wallenberg reverberated with the waves of noise. It was bombarding yet remarkable; the loudness thrilled me, and I felt like I was in a cocoon of surrounding force. The performance was unlike anything I've ever heard. It was truly unique and innovative."
Augustana Observer, by Daniel Reine
Fog, Ice, Snow, Cold, Sand, Lava, Wind: These are the elements out of which sound artist Matthew Burtner creates his eerily effective electroacoustic soundscapes, music that draws from both beauty and horror. He calls his music ecoacoustics. I say it’s the world song.”
Here on Earth, by Jean Ferraca
"Burtner’s pieces, instead of borrowing from Alaska’s traditional musics, create, through compositional processes and modes of performance, a new Alaskan music.”
“Sounds of Alaska”, in Alaska At 50, by Jocelyn Clark