Biography
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Born
1963 (age 61)
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Born In
Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany
Mathias Grassow was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1963. From the start, music has always been a deep passion. He played drums and guitar in the 1970s and moved on to keyboards in the early 1980s. Mathias became increasingly fascinated with the flexibility and possibility inherent in keyboards and electronics and created experimental electronic music between traditional German and "New Age" styles.
Since the late '80s he has specialized in synthesizer drones and myriad forms of overtone music and explored their effect on the human psyche (similar to the old Indian Nada yoga) by using his voice, tambouras, zithers, flutes, guitars, singing bowls, and some home-built instruments. About twenty years ago, he met a friend who gave him some books by Alan Watts, the American philosopher, Harvard professor, Zen Buddhist, and psychologist. During this period Mathias resolved that his life and music would have one aim: to learn more about true spirit in life and music and reflect back his experiences to the public.
Over the years his path led him from Buddhism to Sufism and the mystical side of Christianity. He also became keenly interested in the pagan North European ancestors (Celts and Vikings) and studied them intensively. More and more Mathias fell in love with the spiritual power in music, especially found in overtone and subharmonic chant, long deep synthesizer drones, and in North Indian raga music. He was influenced by the famous singing bowl sounds of Klaus Wiese (ex Popul Vuh member) and their spiritual power within made Mathias very interested in the "spiritual-energy-flow" and "real charge" in music.
After years of development in Munich with Klaus Wiese and in Italy doing overtone chant, doors began to open to many CD projects with talented musicians such as Rüdiger Gleisberg and Amir Baghiri ("Arcanum" and "Lanzarote Spirits"). During 1993-94 Mathias gave concerts in San Sebastian and the Lanzarote Festival in Spain. Following a concert near Frankfurt, 1996 was a year of creative intermission and collecting new inspiration by connecting with new musicians and labels. After this Mathias, Amir Baghiri, and Oophoi had three concerts produced by "Deep Listenings" publisher Gianluigi Gasparetti near Rome in October '99.
Recently Mathias has been collaborating with more and more artists and sideprojects. The initial results can be heard on the "Eclipsed" sampler - a piece in Irish-Folk style. Following different sampler-contributions, Grassow produced the second long-awaited collaboration with Klaus Wiese, "Mercurius". Another work, "Holy domain", was released in 2003. Grassow connects with many different musicians, always searching for new musical styles and inspirations. He has released several works with US harmonic overtone singer Jim Cole and with well known Italian artist Alio Die. Nostalgia, the Goth/Ambient band formed around Grassow is well known in several scenes and their fourth album is scheduled for early 2010. His friendship with female australian singer Louisa-John Krol has led to several guest appearances on samplers and CDs of well known artists worldwide.
Grassow energetically branches out to work with artists from other genres, as in his Wintersilence project, Markus Reuter from Centrozoon, Tomas Weiss from Germany (more on www.el-culto.com), the german avantgarde black metal band Agrypnie (Ex-Nocte Obducta vocalist Torsten Hirsch) and the well known american avantgarde/folk black metal band Agalloch. Several labels from around the world are producing high quality music from Grassow and guests in different directions; beginning from his classical and unique ambient style and not ending with pop/rock/club-music.
Official site: http://www.mathias-grassow.de
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