Matthew Young

Matthew Young works in multiple creative fields as a musician, graphic designer, and author, with his reputation resting on a pair of privately issued electronic albums from the 1980s. After spending years as a folk performer, he developed a keen interest in both mainstream electronic styles and academic computer music during the early 1970s. A summer seminar on computer music, organized in 1976 by doctoral candidates from Princeton University’s music department, drew him in as a participant. There he created his earliest electronic tones by feeding punch cards into the university’s IBM mainframe, after which the resulting digital tapes were transported to the engineering department’s conversion lab. The outcomes prompted him to acquire an EMS Synthi AKS—often called “Eno’s Little Suitcase”—along with a pair of Revox A-77 reel-to-reel machines and a Roland synthesizer. These tools led to his first privately released recording, Recurring Dreams, which appeared in 1981. His electronic explorations grew alongside a deepening engagement with folk, blues, and contemporary classical traditions; the 1986 album Traveler’s Advisory, issued on his own Mt. Rose Records imprint, fused those strands through the use of hammered dulcimer, banjo, vocals, Casio keyboards, and drum machines. Among the original pieces stood a rendition of Michael Hurley’s “Werewolf,” later singled out by the songwriter as one of the stronger interpretations of his composition. Although Young persisted in performing, composing, and tracking new material, nothing further reached the public. He subsequently established a design firm where he served as graphic designer, art director, and copywriter, and he authored two volumes devoted to nineteenth-century graphic design and printing practices. Yoga/Drag City brought Traveler’s Advisory back into circulation in 2010 and followed with a fresh edition of Recurring Dreams in the summer of 2014.