For their The Marriage of True Minds LP out now on Thrill Jockey, Matmos continue the promise of the Ganzfeld EP by using telepathy as a means for musical composition. Employing the Ganzfeld technique of sensory deprivation in the exploration of parapsychology, the duo of Andrew Daniel and Martin C. Schmidt have conducted experiments on friends at their home in Baltimore and at Oxford University. Experimentees listened to white noise on headphones with their eyes covered while Daniel attempted to transmit “the concept of the new Matmos record” telepathically. During these video taped sessions the test subjects where asked to say or describe anything that came to mind during the transmission, and then these transcripts were used as scores to develop the tracks for The Marriage of True Minds. Recorded and mixed at their home studio in Baltimore and at Snow Ghost Studio in Montana, the album was mastered by Thomas DiMuzio in San Francisco, and it features a slew of additional players including Dan Deacon, DJ Dog Dick, Holger Hiller (Palais Schaumberg), and Jason Willett (Half Japanese). The track “Aetheric Vehicle” is based on experimental musician Keith Fullerton Whitman‘s psychic session, and it features Martin C. Schmidt on synth, rhythms made from the sampled sounds of chinese checkers and handcuffs, as well as strange vocal incantations from Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes). Describing the new video for the track, Matmos explains, “This was a “live” video we tarted up some for late night home viewing”, and it comes with the simple request, “Please watch full-screen”!
