The Music: Unmarked Routes [through Sonic Hypnogogy*]

Luxuriating in deMATerialized atMOSpheres and drone-tones of awe and FASCination, where thoughts and FEELings of division have no SAFE harbor. A low-lit bath of souND, where iridescent, gauzy melodies COLLide in slow motion with DECOLonized electronic SOUNDscapes, a piano, hushed voices, a string quartet, woodwinds and kaleidoscopic dancers. Where lo-fi, DUBbed-out, faded trance rhythms SUPERimposition themselves in your being with the LUCID assurance that a beautiful outcome will BLOOM if together we direct our attention to IT.

 

In these times of planetary transition and what in many ways can be seen as a public mental health emergency sucking so many into a state of deep division, this music seeks to help slow our frantic pace and allow for a re-connection to our true selves via the shared experience of sonic beauty.

 

 

The overall plan is to release the debut album and then spend the following year developing an online presence consisting of weekly short-length social media posts, longer-length ‘screen art’ videos (such as this: Mbira Mbēra), and releasing the entire Berklee Performance Center concert. As this process unfolds, I will be looking to create intimate performance opportunities at concert halls, museums, schools/colleges, festivals, etc. 

 

Back in December of 2023 I held an intimate house concert in my home as a way to ascertain whether I wanted to unearth a life-long love affair with ambient music and to possibly pursue the drastic re-direction of my musical identity that such an unearthing would bring. I loved it as did the small audience of about 30! I decided to dive in to what I knew would be a steep learning curve regarding the incorporation of electronics into my musical mix. 

 

Not long after this concert I received the prestigious Berklee College of Music Faculty Development Guilford Sound Recording Residency that is awarded to Berklee College of Music faculty to support their artistic development. (Estimated value: $10,000) This Recording Residency funds 6 full days of recording at the world-class Guilford Sound recording studio in southern Vermont. Receiving this Residency super charged this project and felt to me like the universe was giving her blessing to this new musical initiative. I spent the entire summer of 2024 writing music for string quartet, woodwinds, piano, synthesizers and electronics to be ready for the August recording session. It went incredibly well and we completed the basic tracking for 13 original compositions. 

 

October of 2024 internationally acclaimed kinetic and environmental sculptor George Sherwood hosted an Unmarked Routes concert in his magical barn where he builds his amazing masterpieces. I invited Carey McKinley and Sarah Slifer Swift, life-long ballet and modern dancers to choreograph and dance gorgeously, to three of the pieces. 

 

Additionally for this concert, textile artist Mary Edna Fraser, known internationally for her powerful works combining ancient art with modern science that convey messages of environmental conservation, was so inspired by the sound, feeling and intention of Unmarked Routes that she loaned us two of her large scale silk batik pieces which hung from the rafters augmenting the mystical atmosphere of the concert. 

 

The next blessing came when I was selected from a large pool of talented faculty at Berklee to perform at the Berklee Performance Center. April 10, 2024 we delivered a full concert of the music from the new album complete with a string quartet, woodwinds (played by Stan Strickland), dance and atmospheric video production. There were roughly 400 in attendance and I received more deeply felt compliments than for any of the other original music concerts I have presented through the years!

 

In early 2025 I received a $5000 grant from the NYC based Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation whose mission it is to commission original music for new dance works and in the production of live music for such works. This has had a huge impact on the production of the music and dance for the above mentioned performance and to provide initial funding for the production of the debut album. 

 

Film producer Ron Wyman of ZeroGravity Films, a long-time friend of mine, has been documenting nearly every step of the development of this project from behind his video camera, amassing a huge amount of gorgeous footage waiting to be shaped into inspired screen art and promotional videos once the album is released. 

 

This recording will NOT be released digitally on “all platforms.” Since the rise of streaming platforms the payments to musicians have gone from bad to worse. The average pay out per stream on Spotify is $.003 - $.005.  This along with recent light shed on Spotify’s business practices along with CEO Daniel Ek, worth $9.2 billion, who is investing heavily in military AI technology, has crossed a line for me and many others. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to produce great music, which for most people is far more important to them than many of the other items and services they spend money on. And I refuse to be part of the further militarization of life. The other streaming platforms are not much better. This musician advocacy initiative is an ongoing process, involving many conversations with other musicians, music business people and research. The exact details of how the Unmarked Routes album will be made available to the public is to be determined but rest assured it will be available for digital download. 

 

Growing up in rural New Hampshire (USA) injected Matt with a deep spiritual connection communicated by the simplicity, beauty and truth of nature. As a child he had the opportunity to visit extended family in Boston and with that cultural exposure, he fell in love with the musical styles of the African diaspora: Jazz, Blues, Reggae and Afro-Latin music. Later as a young man he became extremely interested in the socio-political-economic and psychological-emotional conditions of human kind. This, combined with his intense creative drive, provides the bedrock for nearly all of Matt’s artistic output as a talented keyboardist, singer, composer, arranger, educator and producer.
 
 He completed a masters degree in jazz studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and shortly thereafter joined the piano faculty at Berklee College of Music in 2001. While there, among his other teaching duties, he created a class/ensemble dedicated to the music and life of Bob Marley and launched his own online reggae educational platform, Art of Reggae (artofreggae.com link). He has toured and recorded with the San Francisco based jazz-fusion powerhouse reggae band Groundation. Matt also fell in love with Afro-Cuban music and has been performing in salsa and Latin jazz bands for 20+ years. 

Starting in 2023, Matt has turned much of his artistic attention to the world of ambient neo classical electronic music intimately merging it with the piano and other acoustic instruments. The music is injected with shades of all his previous musical experience and carries the intention to deliver awe inspiring sonic beauty in this time of human and planetary transition. This project is called UNMARKED ROUTES.  (Read Matt’s full bio here.)

 

Links:       MattJenson.com                  
Instagram/UnmarkedRoutes                               
Youtube/@UnmarkedRoutes