Matt Sargent (b. 1984) is a composer, guitarist, recording engineer, and music technologist based in upstate New York. His music grows from interests of resonance, acoustic phenomenon, tuning, memory, computational models of musical thinking, and the making/breaking of long-form patterns.
His compositions have been described as “bringing a sharpened sense of the transcendental into the 21st century.” (Paul Muller, Sequenza21) On his 2018 release, Ghost Music, Bill Meyer writes, “this music isn’t about following in anyone’s footsteps; it uses bare resources to establish a bounded and essential place.” (The Wire Magazine) His albums include Tide (A Wave Press), Separation Songs (Cold Blue Music), Tide (for ten basses) (Marginal Frequency), and Ghost Music (Weighter Recordings).
Currently engaged with expanding available repertoire for the pedal steel, Matt commissioned new works for solo pedal steel from Michael Pisaro-Liu, Carl Stone, and Nomi Epstein. He will also premiere James Romig’s new concert-length work for electric guitar, The Fragility of Time, in March 2023. In December 2022, he premiered Splectar, a new work by Robert Carl for retuned electric guitar and electronics at the Slee recital series at SUNY Buffalo. His recording of Kevin Good’s concert-length pedal steel solo, Trails, will be released by Sawyer Editions (Austin, TX) in April 2023.
In demand as an audio engineer for contemporary music, Matt’s recent production credits include Alvin Lucier’s Ricochet Lady (Black Truffle) and One-Arm Bandits (Important Records), Musica Elettronica Viva’s Symphony 107 (Black Truffle Records), Sarah Hennies’s Spectral Malsconcities (New World Records), and Ensemble Signal / David Felder’s Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux (Coviello Contemporary), among many others.
As a technical producer and software designer, Matt developed a networked music notation program for the Swiss-based Ever Present Orchestra, which facilitated performance of numerous large ensemble works composed by Alvin Lucier. In 2021, he co-composed A Murmur in the Trees, for twenty-four basses, with Eve Beglarian and bassist Robert Black (Bang on a Can). Along with Chris Cerrone and the Peer Music publishing company, he is currently reconstructing the electronics of the late composer Ingram Marshall. Praising his work on Robert Carl’s album, Splectra (Cold Blue Music), Fanfare Magazine writes, “he could find no better collaborator than composer and sound designer Matt Sargent.”
Matt is a visiting assistant professor of music at Bard College.