Arnold Mathes

I have been a fan of Arnold Mathes’ electronic sounds for 25 years or more now. He has produced a large body of probing textures, sounds and beats with his large arsenal of electronic sound making instruments. Sometimes he will drop found sounds and spoken bits into the mix for spooky, startling effect. Mathes’ consistency of style is one of his trademarks. He has also collaborated with Ken Clinger among others.

The tape above, “Infinite Room” was from 1985.

The cassette above was a release he did for audiofile Tapes in 1987.

The very first tape trade was in 1983 with Laurie Paisley. That was right after I sent the very first tape to anyone in my life, which was Richard Ginsberg who hosted the “Synthetic Pleasure” radio show on WFMU. When Richard first put my tape on the air, Laurie was a guest on the show at the time. I still have a recording of part of that show when they were talking about the tape I sent.
Shortly after that, Laurie wrote me a letter asking if I would like to trade tapes with her. Now I was officially a ‘home tape trader’. Before that I never knew that such a thing existed. I felt like a whole new world opened up for me. Wow! ,you mean other people I don’t know from all over the world gets to hear my music and I get to hear their’s! I felt like I was part of a very special club. I remember how excited my sister was when she received her first letter from her first ‘pen pal’ when she was a kid. I felt the same way when I received my first tape.

amathes.1(at)netzero.net