Saturday, June 29th 2013 // 02,00 // Palazzo Candiotti
Live

Mathew Jonson’s music offers a rare fusion of populist intensities and nuanced musicality. With a keen understanding for the needs of the dancefloor and the universal laws of house and techno, he's thrown out the rule book time and time again, sneaking tricks learned from electro and even drum'n'bass into minimal clubs, and loading up his B-sides with tracks that do what they damned well please. (No kick drum? No problem.)
It was in Victoria (BC, Canada), when he was 19, that Jonson met up with the crew that would help guide his musical trajectory: Tyger Dhula, Danuel Tate and Colin de la Plante. The four started playing in clubs together, an early version of the group that exists today as Cobblestone Jazz and the Modern Deep Left Quartet. His first record, in 2001, was the first release on the B.C. label Itiswhatitis, appropriately titled "New Identity." Another followed in 2002, and in 2003. That year, he also made his first appearance on Perlon, "Alpine Rocket" - a track he recorded alongside Luciano. And then, suddenly, Jonson was everywhere: Itiswhatitis, Sub Static, Arbutus, Kompakt, M_nus. Despite his quick ascent through the ranks of the techno elite, Jonson has devoted much of his energy to supporting his own close musical family and the Wagon Repair label, which he cofounded with Jesse Fisk, Graham and Adam Boothby, Frank Meyerhofer and Konrad Black. Jonson is behind some of the biggest techno tracks in the 2000s, including 2005's "Marionette”. Despite his decade-plus of experience, however, Her Blurry Pictures, out in June 2013, is only his second solo album, following 2010's Agents of Time. For this one, he's made a move to Crosstown Rebels, which he first appeared on back in 2011 with his single "Dayz." The LP is a mixture of recent songs recorded in his current home of Berlin as well as older tracks that date back to his time in Vancouver. Jonson says Her Blurry Pictures marks "a transition from darker states into something filled with light" in his life.