Album Review: Regards/Uklony dla Boguslaw Schaeffer by Matmos

Even the most understated Matmos release requires a Robert J. Waldinger-level of research to decode its elaborate context. But what makes albums like The Marriage of True Minds (purportedly written using ESP experiments) or Ultimate Care II (based on sounds created by their washing machine) so fascinating is how they manage to deliver sonic emotion and confidence even if you aren't aware of their novel backstories. Taking the complete works of Bogusław Schaeffer -- an avant-garde composer celebrated in his home country of Poland -- the Baltimore duo of Drew Daniel and M.C.

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The duo’s recordings based on the works of the Polish polymath work best as tributes both to him and other electronic music pioneers of the mid-20th century Baltimore duo Matmos have been creating music from unlikely sources for 25 years now. Their discography features tracks built from recordings as unlikely as a liposuction procedure, Bible pages turning, the neural activity of a crayfish, and Adrian Chiles being slapped on the britches with a Caramac… and although we made one of those up, the fact that it still sounds quite plausible tells you a lot. New album Regards is a little different, though, the Instytut Adama Mickiewicza having invited Matmos to create recordings based on the works of Polish polymath, educator, and member of the radical Cracow Group, Bogusław Schaeffer – as Polish speakers will no doubt have deduced from the album's subtitle.

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Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer by Matmos Bogusław Schaeffer is a fascinating figure, born in Lviv (now Ukraine) in 1929 but a citizen of Poland, trained in violin and classical music, but an early experimenter with electronics. He incorporated elements of jazz into his music ahead of the curve and invented his own idiosyncratic system of notation. Schaeffer is widely recognized as one of Poland's leading composers, and if that's not enough, he was also a writer of absurdist plays, an accompanier of dance and theatrical productions and an all-around renaissance man.

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