aerial photograph
Matt Davis’ Aerial Photograph was organized in the autumn of 2001 and began performing in spring of 2002. It’s name comes from an old, and very large, aerial photograph which hangs in the basement of Matt’s parent’s house. Matt composed most of the group’s early material in this room and, upon looking at this photograph so often during this time, named the group after it. The aim of this music, as in the picture, is to see life with a greater, more expansive view.
The group’s instrumentation started as a traditional string quartet with guitar, bass, and drums, but has grown to include clarinet, tenor and soprano saxophones, trombone, flugelhorn and computer generated sounds. The sound of the music is an amalgamation of jazz, classical, various ethnic musical traditions and popular music all performed with a strong emphasis on nuance and subtlety.
Aerial Photograph performs in and around Philadelphia regularly. Currently, the group is completing a year long residency project called “City of Philadelphia, 2008". Each month in 2008, Matt interviews different populations of Philadelphia residents and writes new music about them and their experiences. Then the whole ensemble rehearses this music, records it, and performs it at a local music venue, called the Tritone in Philadelphia. Audio clips from the interviews are woven into each composition. Each month the recorded music is released as a hand-made, limited run album. Only 30 copies are made. In January of 2008 the music was inspired by elderly people in Philadelphia - it was called “City of Age”; February was about people with drug addictions and drug recovery - “City of Addiction”; March explored the immigrant population in Philadelphia - “City of Arrivals”; April was all about children - “City of Youth”, etc. The 2008 performances at the Tritone take place every 4th Thursday of the month.
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