“Mathon” is a project (named after the same titled location in the Swiss Alps) where for one week a mobile studio is installed high up in the swiss mountains, ands guests are invited to join the Mathon core musicians (Thomas Augustiny, Roger Stucki and Pete Leuenberger) and to create music inspired by the beautiful landscape surrounding them.
The recent project called ‘Via Mala’, refers to “a trail along the Hinterrhein in Graubuenden. A canyon with cliffs carved by its torrents, falling threehundred meters into the depth. It seems as if the mountain is broken in two. Enormous floads of meltingwater, the consistent gnawing of the river created during centuries a natural spectacle of unique beauty.“
I had not heard about this recording project until I found out about the Via Mala Remix Project, where music of the original Via Mala album is remixed by people like Matthias Grassow & Thomas Weiss, Emanuele Erante, Gunter Adler, Alexandre Navarro – among a range of other artists whose names were not familiar to me.
And I must say the music on this project music comes as a pleasant surprise to me.
It’s not field recordings, as you might have expected, but it’s VERY clear these recordings were landscape-inspired.
There is an occasional dark poetic rap (Fernando Lagreca’s another bridge mix), as well as some Biosphere-alike tracks like the ‘How to open a mountain’ – mix by Pe Lang. But also some bright, light-hearted electronics like the Veia Traversina remix by Jap Jap.
This remix project is as adventurous as a trip through the Swiss Alp landscape itself: not always comfortable, sometimes downright freezing cold, but always fascinating and rewarding.