Matt Sargent

Matt Sargent (b. 1984) is a composer, guitarist, recording engineer, and music technology specialist based in upstate New York, where he is an assistant professor of music at Bard College. His music grows from resonance, memory, the making/breaking of patterns, and computer models of musical thought. Working between the concert stage, the recording studio, and the code box, Sargent’s audio technology has been called “a veritable fountain of intensifying, kaleidoscopic spumes” (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp). Over the last decade, his work has focused extensively on musical algorithms and real-time notation systems, which can be heard in his compositions and technical collaborations with other artists.

His albums include Illuminations (Sawyer Editions, 2024), Bend (Waveform Alphabet, 2023), Between Time and After (Chen Li Music, 2023), Tide (A Wave Press, 2020), Separation Songs (Cold Blue Music, 2019), Tide (for ten basses) (Marginal Frequency, 2019), and Ghost Music (Weighter Recordings, 2018).

His compositions have been described as “remarkable from all angles” (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine) and “bringing a sharpened sense of the transcendental into the 21st century.” (Paul Muller, Sequenza21) On Ghost Music, Bill Meyer writes, “this music isn’t about following in anyone’s footsteps; it uses bare resources to establish a bounded and essential place.” (The Wire Magazine) His guitar work on Bend, a duo album with synthesist Dani Dobkin, was described as “a guitar record retrieved from far in the future.” (Antonio Poscic, Research Music)

As a performer, Matt is active in commissioning, premiering, and recording new compositions for the electric guitar and pedal steel. He co-composed a new work for just intonation electric guitar with Robert Carl, Splectar, which can be heard on Carl’s Infinity Avenue (Neuma Records, 2024). His recording of James Romig’s hour-length piece for electric guitar, The Fragility of Time was released on A Wave Press in 2024. In 2024, he premiered Walk In Praise of All Metals, a collection of music co-composed with experimental luthier Ben Luca Robertson. He is currently engaged in a commissioning project for the pedal steel, which will include new compositions by Nomi Epstein, Jeff Herriott, and Michael Pisaro-Liu. He was a 2025 artist-in-residence at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute with guitarist Trevor Babb.

In demand as an audio engineer for contemporary music, Matt’s recent production credits include David First’s Trust Patterns (XI Records), Catherine Lamb’s interius/exterius (Greyfade), Alvin Lucier’s One Arm Bandits (Important Records), Ricochet Lady (Black Truffle), and Works for the Ever Present Orchestra II (Black Truffle), Richard Teitelbaum’s Asparagus (Black Truffle), Musica Elettronica Viva’s Symphony No. 107 - The Bard (Black Truffle), Michael Ranta’s Transits: Volume I (Important Records), Sarah Hennies’s Spectral Malsconcities (New World Records), Kyle Gann’s Whispers, and Ensemble Signal / David Felder’s Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux (Coviello Contemporary), among many others.

As a technical producer and software designer, Matt developed a networked music notation program for the Swiss-based Ever Present Orchestra, which facilitated performance of numerous large ensemble works composed by Alvin Lucier. He wrote software, co-composed, and recorded A Murmur in the Trees, for twenty-four basses, with Eve Beglarian and bassist Robert Black. Praising his work on Robert Carl’s album, Splectra (Cold Blue Music), Fanfare Magazine writes, “he could find no better collaborator than composer and sound designer Matt Sargent.”