A word or two on Matt Elliott
As I seem to have been the only soul to have voted for Matt Elliott’s album this year (Farewell to all we know) I thought I might write a few words about the musician and how I ended up coming across him.
In 2005 I found myself at a festival watching this (unknown to me) singer and guitarist. He was looping his instrument and voice, something that at that time I hadn’t come across on stage, and it was intense, really intense. Matt Elliott (for it was he) was show casing songs from his then current LP ‘Failing Songs’ an album that I picked up not long after. It’s a blend of (I guess) folk music styles (I would have said French but his press release suggests Balkan) but it was the lyrical content that really struck me (and stuck with me). It’s not a happy listen, seemingly the singer looks at life and existence through a lens of despair or perhaps resignation. I played the heck out of the album over the next year or so, and then for some reason I didn’t look for a follow up and I never heard anything more about him. Perhaps a consequence of not being a singer covered by the monthly magazines I sort of forgot about him, but he continued to release albums. A brief search on spotify in June this year led me to his most recent release and I snapped it up in no time. The album still has a folk element, but is more sparsely arranged (Spanish guitar, double bass, piano, violin) with his vocals now a whisper. On the whole it is a beautiful thing. Again, it won’t be getting a party started any time soon, but it has a certain intensity musically. The lyrical bite remains, even as a whisper.
As far as I am aware he is not related to the former Leicester City midfielder of the same name.
I’ve included a clip of the title track from this year’s release- Farewell to all we know
I love his previous incarnation as Third Eye Foundation which was radically different – looks like I need to catch up with his later stuff!
I had heard the name TEF but never actually heard any of his recordings. The solo stuff is quite different (from what I’ve subsequently heard).