‘Topography’
for Cello, Percussion, Piano and Analog Synthesizer
Composer: Matt McBane
Performers: Ashley Bathgate and Mantra Percussion
Duration: 45 minutes
Instrumentation: Cello, Synthesizer, Piano, Vibraphone, Drum Set, and 2 Percussionists.
‘Topography’ is a 45 minute, 6 movement septet for cello, percussion, analog synthesizer and piano, written for Ashley Bathgate and Mantra Percussion. It is the terrestrial companion piece to the acquatic album and composition, ‘Bathymetry’. It was premiered December 6, 2023 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.
The premiere was featured in the New York Times, and broadcast in its entirety on WNYC’s New Sounds.
Ashley Bathgate: “a phenomenal cellist” — The Washington Post
Mantra Percussion: “aural hypnosis” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker
Matt McBane’s ‘Bathymetry’:
• One of Wilco’s albums of the year
• “an electroacoustic tour de force” — Steve Smith, Night After Night
• “a musical and sensory journey like no other that has been offered in contemporary music recently.” — PAN M 360
Preview Video - Movement Excerpts
Complete Movements
World Premiere: December 6, 2023 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn
Broadcast on WNYC’s New Sounds
Movement time stamps:
1. Pulses (6:18)
2. Possible Patterns (11:53)
3. Drones (24:18)
4. Additive (32:24)
5. Chorale (40:31)
6. Scales (47:24)
About Topography
‘Topography’ is a septet for cello, synthesizer, piano and percussion. This 45-minute piece is made up of 6 individual movements ranging from textural, ambient slow-movements focused on sound design, to pattern-based, contrapuntal fast-movements anchored by interlocking rhythms in the drums. It was premiered in December 2023 by Ashley Bathgate and Mantra Percussion at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, co-presented and broadcast by WNYC’s New Sounds.
The movements of ‘Topography’ are made of big gestures and gradually changing patterns that accumulate to evoke open spaces and natural landscapes. It is the terrestrial companion to my oceanic album-length composition ‘Bathymetry’, released November 2022 on Cantaloupe Music in collaboration with Sandbox Percussion.
The piece at times functions as concerto with the cellist in a solo role and at other times as a septet with all players given equal weight. In addition to the cello, the percussion “orchestra” consists of both standard and found percussion instruments as well as analog synthesizers (played live), piano and drum set, all played by the 6 percussionists. This instrumentation allows for a tremendous range of timbres and textures as well as the intersection of acoustic and electronic sounds to explore, in addition to all the sonic potentials of the cello.
-Matt McBane
BIOS
Ashley Bathgate, cello
American cellist Ashley Bathgate has been described as an “eloquent new music interpreter” (New York Times) and “a glorious cellist” (The Washington Post) who combines “bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops” (New York Magazine). Her “impish ferocity”, “rich tone” and “imaginative phrasing” (New York Times) have made her one of the most sought after performers of her time.
Bathgate was a member of the acclaimed sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars for ten years. In 2015 Bathgate gave the world premiere of What Moves You, a collaborative performance project with jookin’ dance sensation Lil Buck at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, NC, as well as the world premiere of a new Cello Concerto written for her by Kate Moore for the Gaudeamus Festival in Utrecht, NL. Subsequently, she released her debut album, Stories For Ocean Shells, featuring a set of works for solo cello composed by Moore, which was released in 2016 on Cantaloupe Music. That year Bathgate also commissioned the ‘composer collective’ Sleeping Giant to write ASH, a six-movement suite for solo cello. Both ASH and her latest album, 8 Track, featuring new multitrack works by Alex Weiser and Emily Cooley, as well as a new rendition of Steve Reich’s Cello Counterpoint, will be commercially released this coming season. Most recently, she premiered a new evening length work by Michael Gordon, House Music, at the 2018 Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, NL.
Mantra Percussion
Committed to honoring the past and expanding the future of percussion music, Mantra Percussion brings to life new works for percussion by living composers, collaborates with artists from diverse genres and styles, and questions what it means to communicate music with percussion instruments. Mantra Percussion engages new audiences by challenging the standard concert format through evening-length events that look toward a grander artistic vision.
Since forming as an ensemble in 2009, Mantra Percussion has been featured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, including BAM's Next Wave Festival, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Duke Performances, the Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, National Public Radio, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Drogheda Festival in Ireland, the Ecstatic Music Festival and the Ecstatic Summer Festival, Mass MoCA, and the Right Now Festival in South Korea.
Matt McBane
Matt McBane is a composer, electronic musician and violinist whose music draws on classical minimalism and studio production techniques; analog synthesizers and fiddle music; orchestras and found percussion; complex patterns and emotional nuance. He has been described as “a natural composer, a fresh voice” by the Los Angeles Times and praised for his “unpredictable and utterly charming musical inventions” by Bloomberg News.
Matt’s latest album, ‘Buoy’ (Gradient Music, February 2025) is a solo project of patterns and ambiance for synthesizers and violin. It was featured on Bandcamp and called “a stunning blend of neoclassical instrumentation and minimalist modular synth music.” It is his first primarily electronic album and first entirely solo album on which he plays a variety of analog synthesizers (modular and fixed), violin, piano and bass guitar, and manipulates it all in his computer. This project grew out of a performance in Brooklyn in 2020 on a concert curated by Laurie Anderson and Arto Lindsay.
Matt’s most recent large-scale project, is the diptych of “Bathymetry’ and ‘Topography.’ ‘Bathymetry,’ is a 40-minute composition for percussion and analog synthesizer, and the album with Sandbox Percussion (2022 Grammy nominees) was released in 2022 on Cantaloupe Music. ‘Bathymetry’ was selected as an album of the month on Bandcamp, and an album of the year by the band Wilco, and called “an electro-acoustic tour de force” by Steve Smith. ‘Topography’ is a 45-minute septet for cellist Ashley Bathgate, Mantra Percussion and analog synthesizer, premiered in December 2023 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, featured in The New York Times, and co-presented and broadcast by WNYC’s New Sounds. ‘Topography’ will be recorded in 2025.
Matt’s percussion music has been performed around the world by ensembles including So Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Mantra Percussion, and dozens of US university percussion ensembles. In recent seasons, the Hong Kong-based Toolbox Percussion has toured China with McBane’s ‘For Triangles’ and the Rome-based Blow-Up Percussion has toured Italy with his ‘Bathymetry.’
In addition, Matt’s music was featured in the 2022 Hulu/BBC show ‘Conversations with Friends.’ And, his 25-min suite for bluegrass string band, ‘Drawn’ was released on the Jake Schepps Quintet's album ‘Entwined’ which was called a 2015 album of the year by Colorado Public Radio.
Matt’s instrumental band, Build, released two albums on New Amsterdam Records and has been described by New York Magazine as a “rocking post-classical quintet which takes inspiration from minimalist chamber music, instrumental rock, modal jazz, and more.” Matt was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Carlsbad Music Festival from 2003-2021, widely known for its programming of “adventurous music by the beach” for which he was called, “a first-rate organizer with a broad range of musical interests” by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
