Vijf stemmen, vijf nummers, vijf talen en vijf emoties: dat is wat de eerste EP van de jonge a-capellagroep mata inhoudt. Het is dan ook geen verrassing dat de vijf zangers ‘VIJF’ kozen als titel voor hun debuut, een project dat ze al bijna sinds de oprichting van de group vijf (ja, alweer vijf) jaar geleden in Maastricht aan het voorbereiden waren.
De vijf composities nemen de luisteraar mee op een emotionele reis langs vijf belangrijke levenservaringen: troost als een jonge zuigeling (“Abendlied”), kinderlijke speelsheid (“Drip Drop”), verliefd zijn (“Rode Tulpen”), terugkijken op het verleden (“Fliegen”) en beseffen dat het leven een nieuwe wending neemt (Une Autre Ligne). Al deze ervaringen zijn gemeenschappelijk gedeeld en toch heel individueel – en dat is precies waar het bij de klank van mata om draait: het creëren van een intens gedeeld muziekmoment dat toch genoeg ruimte laat voor elke stem om tot bloei te komen in een heel eigen en uniek geluid.
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Five voices, five songs, five languages and five emotions: this is what the first EP of the young a cappella group mata is all about. It is thus no surprise that the five singers chose ‚VIJF‘ (Dutch for ‘five’) as the title for this project, a project that they have been planning almost ever since the group was founded five (yes, five again) years ago in Maastricht (Netherlands).
Having released a few first singles and music videos in the past years, the EP constitutes the next logical and exciting step for the members of mata (Amelie Jost, Ariane Baur, Lorena Dürnholz, Marie Weis and Tabea Koloska). The singers have all studied jazz vocals at Conservatorium Maastricht, which is also where they got to know each other and discovered their shared passion for a cappella singing. Over the years, the group has developed its very own and unique mata sound: precise yet playful, sometimes melancholic and sometimes groovy, and marked by influences from both jazz and classical music. Through their imaginative compositions and arrangements in English, German, French, Dutch or even in fantasy languages, the five singers translate their thoughts and feelings directly to music and transmit them to their audience as purely as possible, using their voices only.
After sharing their music mainly live on stages across the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg over the past years, it is finally time to take the sound of mata from the stage to the studio and to condense everything that mata means to the members, both musically and personally, into their first EP. The five songs, which have been carefully selected from the mata repertoire and which were recorded in the studio of Philipp Jeschke in Aachen, take the listener on an emotional journey through five key experiences of life: consolation as a young infant („Abendlied“), playfulness in childhood („Drip Drop“), falling in love (Rode Tulpen), looking back on the past (Fliegen), and realising that life needs to take a new turn (Une Autre Ligne). All of these experiences are broadly shared and yet very individual – which is exactly what the sound of mata is all about: creating an intense shared moment of music that nevertheless leaves enough room for each voice to flourish in its very own and unique sound.