Matt SARGENT
“Ghost Music”

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio in Yonkers, NY, November 2015.
Matt Sargent teaches music at Bard College, which lies close by the Hudson River, and percussionist Bill Solomon, the sole performer on Ghost Music, is a member of Ensemble Signal. Since the music of Steve Reich figures prominently in the Ensemble’s repertoire, and this piece is composed of spare, often repetitive bell tones, it would be easy to file it under New York minimalism – easy, but incomplete. Solomon is also a member of Queer Percussion Research Group, and Weighter Music is operated by Sarah Hennies, whose own music has articulated the isolation and confusion she experienced before coming out as a trans woman. When Sargent first composed the piece a decade ago, he conceived it as “a movable sanctuary.” This music isn’t about following in anyone’s footsteps; it uses bare resources to establish a bounded and essential space. – Bill Meyer, The Wire Magazine August 2018