Matthew Bourne

Matthew Bourne emerges as a pianist defined by dynamism, intensity, and bold experimentation, resisting straightforward classification yet sharing traits with creators active in nu-jazz and modern classical circles. Labels of that sort nevertheless overlook the breadth of his audience. His foundations rest not solely on the jazz piano lineage traced through Count Basie, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and Thelonious Monk—an eclectic gathering in itself—but extend equally into pop and classical territories, the latter encompassing deep engagement with avant-garde forms. Electronic terrain has likewise attracted him, producing joint work with experimental duo Nightports and downtempo performers Broadway Project and Bonobo, plus a Kraftwerk tribute realized with French experimental guitarist Franck Vigroux on the 2015 release Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited. Solo acoustic projects encompass 2021’s Désinances together with the 2022 prepared piano recording Irrealis. Harpsichord improvisations appear as well, notably on 2024’s Harpsichords.

Born during 1977 in Avebury, Wiltshire, England, Bourne started trombone at nine, cello at thirteen, and two years later taught himself piano, absorbing the output of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and George Gershwin. Swift advancement on cello and piano prompted him to set the trombone aside. These developments unfolded throughout primary and secondary schooling, leaving him a proficient musician by 1995. That year also marked his initial engagement with jazz. In 1995 he raised £1,500 for the Hawksley Romania Trust through a continuous twenty-four-hour piano improvisation. In 1996 he acquired a Fender Rhodes electric piano and enrolled at Leeds College of Music. Over the ensuing years at Leeds he cultivated an affinity for British jazz of the 1970s, especially musicians such as John Surman, Mike Osborne, Evan Parker, and Mike Westbrook, figures who have remained enduring wellsprings. At the same time he moved farther from conventional jazz practice toward contemporary composition and avant-garde exploration. Throughout this interval he suffered repeated severe tendonitis episodes that originated after the charity marathon. He joined the college contemporary music ensemble, performing John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Louis Andriessen, and served as soloist in Michael Daugherty’s piano concerto Tombeau de Liberace and Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra.

Following his 2001 graduation with a first-class degree, Bourne pursued doctoral study at Leeds University, completing a Ph.D. in Performance in 2004. That same year he claimed the Young Jazz Musician category of the Perrier Awards. Fellow recipients included singer Niki King and the Chris Hutchings Quartet; the honorees shared a subsequent album. The next year he received the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation. He assembled the ensemble Electric Dr M featuring guitarist Chris Sharkey, bassist Riaan Vosloo, and drummers Dave Black and Sam Hobbs; the self-titled album appeared on Sound Recordings in 2003. In 2005 he earned the International Jazz Award from the International Jazz Festivals Organisation. His first solo album, The Molde Concert—captured live in Molde, Norway, during 2005—came out on Foghorn Records in 2008 and garnered praise. The same year he issued recordings with Trio Grande (Un Matin Plein de Promesses) and Dave Stapleton (Dismantling the Waterfall: The Mill Sessions, Vol. 1). He additionally formed Bourne Davis Kane alongside bassist Dave Kane and drummer Steve Davis; the trio’s debut Lost Something appeared on Edition Records that year. In 2009 he partnered with Vigroux for Call Me Madame (Good News from Wonderland), issued on the D’Autres Cordes label. Moment to Moment, a Bourne Davis Kane album with saxophonist Paul Dunmall, surfaced on Slam Productions that year, followed by the trio’s The Money Notes on Foghorn Records in 2010.

Bourne released joint projects with Trio Grande (Hold the Line!) and with Tony Bevan, Tony Buck, and Barre Phillips (Everybody Else But Me) in 2011. The following year Leaf issued his first studio solo full-length, Montauk Variations. The record earned acclaim for its serenity and grace and prompted partnerships with Amon Tobin and Nancy Elizabeth, both admirers of the album. Chanson d’Amour, his collaboration with Laurent Dehors, also appeared that year. Working with Vosloo and drummer Tim Giles as Impermanence Trio, the group issued a split LP with Tricko Tareco on Impossible Ark Records in early 2013. //Bourne/Berridge/Bourne//, a collaboration with Broadway Project, received digital release via ODS Recordings in 2014. Bourne Davis Kane’s Broken Light arrived in late 2015, as did Mandalas in the Sky, the trio’s second album with Dunmall.

Also in 2015, Bourne joined Vigroux and installation artist Antoine Schmitt for a sequence of audio-visual events titled Radioland, honoring Kraftwerk’s 1975 classic Radio-Aktivität on its fortieth anniversary. Leaf released Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited in early 2016. Shortly afterward the label issued Bourne’s solo album Moogmemory, recorded entirely on the Lintronics Advanced Memorymoog synthesizer. Later that year he issued an accompanying EP whose pieces originated during the Moogmemory sessions and included a cover of Phil Collins’ “Sussudio.” One year later another full-length was prepared. Isotach was recorded at his Yorkshire home and signaled a return to acoustic instrumentation. Leaf released Bourne’s self-titled collaboration with experimental duo Nightports in 2018.

Bourne worked again with French clarinetist Laurent Dehors, yielding A Place That Has No Memory of You, issued by émouvance in 2020. Désinances, a solo piano record assembled from two sessions, appeared on Jimi Tenor’s Puu imprint in 2021. A live performance with Keith Tippett, Aeolian, came out on Discus. The Embalmer, recorded with drummer Emil Karlsen, emerged on Relative Pitch Records in 2022. Bourne returned to Leaf with Irrealis, a concise album of improvised prepared-piano pieces.

Collaborative effort Shiver Meets Matthew Bourne, Vol. 1 appeared in 2023, comprising a single forty-two-minute improvisation recorded with guitarist Chris Sharkey, bassist Andy Champion, and drummer Joost Hendrickx at Bourne’s residence. Vol. 2, another improvised set by the same musicians, followed in 2024. A second project with Nightports, Dulcitone 1804, drew upon the sonorities of Bourne playing a rare Victorian keyboard instrument. He next released the solo piano album This Is Not for You. This was followed immediately by Harpsichords, containing one disc of harpsichord improvisations by himself, Glen Leach, and Nika Ticciati, together with a second disc created in partnership with Nightports.