Music / Guest Mix / Dj Set

Matsya

Subtempo Guest Mix 002

Bio

Matsya has been involved from the ground up with festivals and events for a decade now. He has been playing Dj sets at yearly meetings such as Shambhala Music Festival,Bass Coast, Diversity Festival, Luminosity Gathering, Motion Notion, The Field etc..

He is now an event curator and promoter with noticeable recent events such as Living Spheres, Inflorescence, Mythodical and Silhouette, some of “A Sound Tasting Room” ’s production. Matsya lives on Salt Spring Island, Djs, facilitates contact improvisation and grow food.

Matsya's love of getting his hands in the earth seems to go in hand with his innate skill at digging up of musical gems. His timely selections, diversity in tempos, variance in styles and shades from complete darkness to blindingly light is what makes Matsya’s sets unique and tastefully unpredictable. From atmospheric ambience to current beat and sound design, Matsya’s refined palette does not go unnoticed.

Dj Matsya playling live at Entheos. Photo by Geo Anomaleye Shutter

About This Mix

When Rocco asked me to create a mix for Subtempo, I was honoured and also excited to craft a set for this new label which I know has many gems to present of the next few months and years.

If you’ve been following my music explorations in the past few years you’ve heard my diverse approaches into mixing as well as selections. Festival or event style where focus is on the dance floor. Building momentum, keeping steady, drops and drops and drops while having more of a goal oriented type of scenario. I really enjoy the thrill of improvisation and the beautiful imperfections that come with this.

Then, my studio mixes are where time and space become less relevant. I play in a timeless and elusive space where multiple styles, harmonies and beat patterns intertwine themselves in a very patient way. More of a wide path with different unexpected crossroads.

With this mix I followed aesthetically rich tunes, feeling where the harmonies would take me to without sticking too much to a genre or trying to keep a specific pace. Some laid back tunes, some challenging ones, some new and some old ones. I guess in generic terms I’d say, Leftfield, ambient, sassy, moody and heady grooves. For a listening ear that gets curious in the cracks and nooks of sound while bobbing gently around with a smirk.

I live on Salt Spring Island, a small but activated little island near Vancouver, Canada. Luckily bathing in a very rich soup of music explorers and artistic people in general. My music explorations have started with grunge and progressive rock. I played guitar intensively for many years as well as picking up any other instruments I could find like percussion,bass even tabla. Now, I’ve been djing for about 10 years, playing festivals (Bass Coast, Shambhala Music Festival, The Field, Diversity, Luminosity), some clubs, special events as well as making private mixes for dance performances and workshops. I am now also producing my own material. The first tracks should be coming up later this year. Apart from that, I curate some shows, garden a lot(keeps me grounded), host and teach contact improvisation dance(keeps me embodied). I aim at a balanced life between deep mind and light body.

Long live Subtempo Records.
– Manuel - Matsya