The Contemplative Podcast

Welcome back to the fourth episode (in our third season) of The Contemplative Podcast with your host, Matt Emery. On today’s episode, Matt chats with Daniel Inzani and Alex Hobbis of the Hidden Notes music festival, which will take place this year in Stroud, Gloucestershire (UK) on the 23rd and 24th of September, featuring an amazing roster of live performances (see  full line-up here ). We’ll als...

Welcome back to our third episode of The Contemplative Podcast with your host, Matt Emery. On today's episode, Matt chats with Adam Wiltzie of the one and only A Winged Victory For The Sullen about the beginnings of this magnificent duo (with Dustin O'Halloran), their albums, The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune, 2019) and Atomos (Erased Tapes, 2014), their long-term collaboration with Francesco Donadel...

Welcome back to a second episode of a brand new season of The Contemplative Podcast. On today's instalment, Matt Emery chats with Clarice Jensen, an American (NYC-based) cellist, a graduate of the Julliard School, and an artistic director of ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble). As an instrumentalist, collaborator, and in her role in ACME, Jensen has recorded and performed alongside man...

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Contemplative Podcast! In fact, welcome back to a whole brand new season! In 2022, Matt Emery interviewed eight amazing composers, artists and labels (see the full list here ), and today we're kicking off the third season's entry for this year with Brian Fennel, aka SYML, with a chat about his new record on Nettwerk, his recent session for KEXP rad...

Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Contemplative Podcast! As you may be already aware, we’ve taken a small break, but we’re very happy to announce our return with many exciting new guests in the upcoming episodes over the course of this year. If you’re new to this series, please subscribe to keep up to date with the latest episodes, and catch up on the past entries and seasons, in wh...

Happy holidays and welcome back to another episode of The Contemplative Podcast! If you’re new to this series, please subscribe to keep up to date with the latest episodes, and catch up to past entries and seasons, in which we’ve covered many of your favourite composers and labels! You can find us on directly Spotify and Apple Podcasts or use your favourite app to subscribe using the links on the...

Welcome back to another episode of The Contemplative Podcast! In today’s episode, Matt Emery chats with Alex Buhr about his new label,  XXIM Records  (pronounced “twenty-one M”). Alex talks us through his musical background, setting up Mercury KX, and the vision behind his latest imprint. As always, there is music along the way from all of the artists on the label’s roster plus two tracks at the v...

Happy Friday and welcome back to the Contemplative Podcast. In this episode, Matt Emery meets up with award-winning producer and composer Robert Koch (aka Robot Koch) to talk about his early influences, his progression into music production, his two most recent albums,  The Next Billion Years  (Modern Recordings, 2020) and Sphere (Trees & Cyborgs, 2018), touring planetariums, working with an orche...

Good morning and welcome back to the Contemplative Podcast. In this episode, Matt Emery meets up with Sebastian Plano (one of my personal favourite composers!) to chat about his latest album, Save Me Not (now out on Mercury KX), growing up in a musical family, working with Ben Lukas Boysen on the soundtrack for the game  Everything , his recent favourite records, and much more! Be sure to also che...

In this episode of The Contemplative Podcast, Matt Emery chats with Rutger Hoedemaekers, who has recently released a new album on FatCat's 130701 imprint, titled The Age Of Oddities (check out " The Invention Of The Moon " track premiere). In this episode, you'll learn about the making of the album, the musicians who played on it, Rutger's new studio in Brussels, the process of translating the mus...

We’re back with the second episode (of the second series) of Contemplative Podcast in which Matt Emery chats with Matthew Halsall, a Manchester-based jazz musician, trumpet player, and founder of the independent Gondwana Records. Learn all about his new album, Salute to the Sun, his new band, living in Japan, and of course, his very own label. Be sure to also check out the previous episode, where...

In case you did not know this, let me restate. In September of last year, a Contemplative Classical community founded by Michael Price said its farewell. It has been active for three years, gathering a strong following for its expertly curated  Spotify Playlist  and a podcast where Matt Emery has interviewed contemporary musicians across thirteen (now archived) episodes. I quickly swept in to save...

Matt Emery chats to composer Dmitry Evgrafov about his new album 'Surrender', how he came to work with Fat Cat's 130701 record label, dream collaborations with Nigel Godrich, his modest studio setup, his app Endel which creates personalised sound environments to help you focus and relax, hiring a copyrighter to name 500 of his tracks and much more. Dmitrys 3rd album 'Surrender' is out now on 13070...

Matt Emery meets Siné Buyuka of Injazero Records to chat about the label's beginnings, vinyl, psychical releases and the environment, the importance of artwork, her own music that she releases under the name Villette, an important look at the imbalance of women in the music industry and organisations helping and supporting women in music. We also have some non Injazero music recommendations as wel...

Matt Emery meets composer extraordinaire Carly Paradis in her studio to chat about her new album Nothing Is Something and collaborations with the likes of Douglas Dare, London Contemporary Orchestra, EERA, Jonas Bjerre and Polar Bear. We also discuss performing at The Royal Albert Hall, working with Michael Stein and Clint Mansell, her soundtrack work for Line Of Duty, The Innocents and Much More....

This week Matt Emery shares a coffee and chat with composer and producer Ed Carlsen at a windy Barbican Centre. The conversation entails the recording process to his latest album Morning Hour, working with Moderna Records, favourite records of 2019, well being, selecting artwork and much more.

Matt Emery meets the brilliant Nainita Desai in her studio to chat about her journey into writing music for film and TV, experimenting with sounds and instruments, her recent scores for the game Telling Lies and award winning documentary film For Sama and lots more.   

Matt Emery meets music virtuosos Anna Phoebe and Aisling Brouwer of AVA to chat about their debut album 'Waves', the recording process, working with One Little Indian Records, favourite recent albums and podcasts and what they get up to when not doing music.

Matt Emery Meets Nico Casal to chat about his debut album 'Alone', dream collaborations, albums that have inspired him, his approach to performing live, writing for the Oscar winning short film 'The Stutterer' and much more.

Matt Emery meets composer Joep Beving to chat about his new album Henosis, collaborations, composing for The Drone Ballet, the story behind his beloved Schimmel upright piano and much more.

Matt Emery meets Michael Price & Katy Jackson to chat about carving a career in the music industry, studying, working with Erased Tapes, Michael's latest album Tender Symmetry, Contemplative Classical, Inspirational and Current favourite albums and much more.

Matt Emery meets the talented Simeon Walker to chat about finding your own sound and recording techniques, touring, The Brudenell Piano Sessions (a piano concert series he curates in Leeds), dream festival lineups and the artwork for his debut album Mono created by Gregory Euclide.

Matt Emery heads to Ninja Tune HQ to meet pianist and composer James Heather to chat about growing up in a family of piano players, composing and improvising, collaborations, streaming services, inspirational records and his new reworks album.

Matt Emery pops into Mercury KX to chat to Luke Howard about the recording process of his latest release 'Open Heart Story' and upcoming release 'More Heart Stories', his studio setup in Melbourne, scoring for virtual reality, scoring for strings, what he's currently listening to, the Australian music scene and what else he has coming up.

Matt Emery meets Shida-Shahabi, Resina and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch after their triumphant show for Daylight Music at Union Chapel. They chat about touring, latest releases, recording, meeting and working with 130701, favourite records and the joys of silence.