Jim Matus is a relative newcomer to the Valley—he moved here from Hartford in 2006. Matus is a stringed instrument player, but one who migrated from guitar to several of its cousins from around the globe.
That move seems like a natural—Matus has long been drawn to music from far-flung destinations, and his several musical projects incorporate sounds from all over. In recent years, Matus has embraced a single instrument as his vehicle for live performance. It’s a strange beast called a “laoutar,” a cross of guitar, mandocello, and the Greek laouto.
On the new release from Matus’ main brainchild of recent years, Mawwal, you can hear the laoutar on solos. In the rhythm parts, the instrument is often doubled with a laouto, and the result is a lush wash of string sounds that turns melodies into anchor points for the music. The disc, Sight Up, might nominally be called “world music” or “world fusion,” but it’s a highly personal vision in which Matus mixes sounds that seem Middle Eastern, Balkan, and American all at once. Vocals wail, full of grace note elegance, and the music unfolds in unhurried, intriguing rhythms played on percussion of all sorts.
Matus’ concerns often seem spiritual—the name of the album came from a quote of unusual origins. As he explained in a recent interview, “Many of the titles and text came from lucid dreams where I could actually see the words written out in front of me or ‘hear’ them spoken. It sounds spooky, but it’s true. It’s called Sight Up, which came from ‘Man is but a God, sight up. All in heaven be blind, ears to the ground.'”
Sight Up feels like an unusual voyage; its music is not immediately familiar, and it works on its own terms. A slew of high-powered musical guests complete the picture. Put with that music Matus’ singular lyrical vision, and the whole thing becomes a work that demands a category all its own.
This week, Matus celebrates the release of his new Mawwal material in unusual fashion. He plays the Iron Horse in Northampton on Sept. 10 with another of his projects, Impulse Ensemble, which combines his talents with those of two more Valley world music visionaries, electric violinist Derrik Jordan and balafon and percussion player Tony Vacca.
The two projects come from quite different places. “Mawwal comes totally from my vision, so I get to be the boss,” Matus says. “There is a core of two or three musicians I use for the live band and a dozen or so others that augment the recordings. I write out charts, make demos and teach them the material. I’m far from a dictator, though. I always leave room for people to interpret the material and make their own statements, but in the end I have the last word.
“Impulse Ensemble is a totally different animal,” he continues. “It’s three guys with similar experience in leading their own groups just surrendering to the impulse of the moment, improvising and playing off each other. Tony Vacca plays balafon and percussion, and Derrik Jordan plays five-string electric violin and percussion, then there’s me on laoutar.
“We have developed a repertoire of original tunes, but most of them came out of spontaneous jamming. We play tunes that are pretty simple structures, and then improvise off them kind of like a jazz concept, usually coming back to play the head. Sometimes we end up in uncharted territory and other times we just come back to the same place we started. Either way I always have to fasten my seatbelt. It’s one of the most fun bands I’ve ever played in.”
