Matt Choboter – Visceral Totems: Improvisations for Microtonal Prepared Piano

“This release consists of 10 spontaneously composed pieces recorded in several locations around Copenhagen and spanning the period of 2022-2024. “Visceral Totems” captures an unfiltered visceral expression that feels raw, exposed and honest. A way that I would play for myself while being alone. Evoking the plane of dreams and absorbing the mytho-spiritual worlds of South Indian Classical and Balinese Gamelan music, this release bridges expansive territories between avant-jazz, contemporary experimental, and ambient music.

The pieces were captured during several searching periods where my piano became a laboratory and labyrinth for sound discovery and thereby self discovery. Everything heard is an open process continually unfolding and flowing. A bodily interplay of rhythmics, the pieces seek a dancing quality - a careful moment-to moment self-ritual in sounds both unfamiliar and becoming familiar. I can visualize the musical motifs as shadow puppets (wayang kulit) animated by the spontaneous movements of a flickering flame.

The pieces work in various new tuning systems with the application of intensive piano preparations. Other than the second last track (recorded on a grand piano) the remaining pieces were recorded on a custom-made upright piano that features a smaller pitch range and also only 1-string per note. As a result, the sounds become more direct and tactile.” – Matt Choboter

Danish-based Canadian composer and pianist, Matt Choboter’s music paints subliminal sound narratives within Contemporary Music. Informed by non-western cultures and eclectic spiritualism, he embraces liminal psychology and dream work; a panpsychist ecology; and a musical practice which absorbs distinct features of Just Intonation, South Indian classical and Balinese Gamelan. Nominated for composer of the year (2025 Danish Music Awards) he con- tributes to labels such as ILK Music (DK), Kairos (AU), Inner Circle Music (NY), and Songlines Recordings (CA) with music described as - “ephemeral and beautifully fragile” (Passive Aggressive, DK), “A realized musical dream” (MusicWorks, CA) and music that “expands and blows the mind” (London Jazz News). 

Matt Choboter – Visceral Totems: Improvisations for Microtonal Prepared Piano 
ILK377 
Release date: 26th June 2026 (digital only)
Recorded at the Krokodile Collective, lyd atelier (Copenhagen)
Recorded by Matt Choboter
Mixed by Simon Mariegaard
Mastered by Sam Nacht
Produced by Matt Choboter
Album cover artwork: photograph by Matt Choboter. Indigenous artwork from the great gallery at horseshoe Canyon, Utah, USA.